Yes, ministers

The ministerial system has functioned only for 2.5 weeks, and two ministers have yet to take up their duties. So it is perhaps a little too early to say the system needs to be improved. But policy research group SynergyNet has a point in arguing that a second layer of politically accountable officials is needed to buttress the system.

Most established democracies have a layer of political appointees that is much larger than Hong Kong's. Typically, each minister has one or two junior ministers who can act when he is away, and a team of political aides assisting in formulating policy and lobbying.

By contrast, the bureau directors in Hong Kong are the only officials who owe their appointment to the chief executive; all staff below them are civil servants. So when some of the ministerial appointees go on leave, as happened recently, other ministers have to be drafted to act on their behalf. And even though civil servants are supposed to be politically neutral, they are still fielding questions for the ministers in the Legislative Council.

The problem was probably foreseen by Tung Chee-hwa and his aides when they drew up Hong Kong's version of a ministerial system. But he may have decided to keep the number of political appointees to a minimum, at least during the initial period of implementation, to minimise the impact of the changes on the civil service and keep costs down.

Hong Kong has been run by civil servants for more than 150 years and it will take some time for everyone to get used to the new system. For senior civil servants who had previously called the shots, the transition might even be a little traumatic.

For their part, most of the ministers who hailed from the private sector have taken great care not to upset their civil servant subordinates. Even though they are each allowed to appoint an administrative assistant, a press secretary and a personal secretary, most have opted to fill these posts with civil servants. Only the Secretary for Education, Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, has decided to ask his press secretary to join him in government when he assumes his post next month.