A REVEALING insight into the way some of our government officials think was on offer last week when Home Affairs Secretary Lam Woon-kwong said that economic development has priority over human rights and rule of law in Hong Kong.
Here he is in his own words:
'Our competitiveness has been threatened. That's why we have implemented a series of policies to strengthen competitiveness and ensure our economy continues to develop.
'Otherwise there will not be sufficient resources to improve human rights, rule of law, social justice and individuals' dignity as these will take up a lot of resources. To an economic society like Hong Kong, economic development is therefore our priority and an important target.'
What this implies is that Mr Lam thinks of human rights and rule of law as social conveniences, things we all want to have - like good homes, a portion of meat with every dinner and car below in the car park.
The reasoning here is that we get these sorts of things when we spend our money rather than invest it, something we can afford to do when the investments are working well and there is money to spare.
But, every now and then, it happens that the investments are not doing so well and our economy's competitiveness is threatened. It is then time to change course and put the money back into investments that will restore competitiveness and bring us to where we were before.