The value and morality of currency speculation may be open to question. But it is not a crime, and nor should it be if the territory wants to retain its role as an international financial centre. So there is no justification for the proposal by the Law Reform Commission to allow telephone tapping of such speculators to safeguard the stability of the local financial system. Britain has an even wider provision, allowing catch-all surveillance to protect national economic well-being. But, at a time when Hong Kong is in the process of removing other draconian statutes inherited from London, it would be perverse to introduce a new one, especially when the potential for abuse is so obvious. To legislate to allow the tapping of speculators' telephones would send a damaging message that the Government believes the dollar peg to be so vulnerable as to be in need of special protection. The reality is that the link is so strong that it easily withstood a speculative onslaught during last year's Mexican peso crisis. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority sees no need for such powers since the $461 billion in the Exchange Fund is a far more potent weapon with which to defend the local currency. Legislators are rightly concerned about the civil liberties implications: snooping on currency speculators could open the floodgates to a string of other surveillance activities with little or no basis. Fortunately this is only a proposal and the Government is not obliged to accept it. Much of the Law Reform Commission's report deserves early enactment; but this recommendation is best forgotten.
