Disney hunt mocks Haddon-Cave legacy

The late Sir Philip Haddon-Cave, our financial secretary from 1971 to 1981, who died on Monday, is widely remembered for the phrase he coined to express Hong Kong's economic policy - positive non-interventionism.

He referred to it frequently during those key years of our development and, although it has a ring of economists' jargon and has not always been practised by the Government, it still neatly sums up the core of what has made us such a success.

Sir Philip faced as many requests for intervention and government funding as his counterparts in other governments but stuck to his principle throughout. The government would exercise benign supervision of big commercial initiatives but starting them, funding them and completing them was the private sector's job.

It is worth recalling as the tributes to him flow in because many people no longer recognise what a sound principle it has always been.

Our Government is much criticised these days for doing so little to move us ahead, particularly in contrast with the Singapore Government, which proclaims a new initiative almost every week to a fanfare of public relations trumpets.

But why should it be the Government's role to do things? Think of the simile of a gardener. His job is to ensure that the seedlings he has planted have good soil, clean water, lots of sunlight and that weeds are removed.