Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has been given the unenviable task of cleaning up Hong Kong so that infectious diseases will not take root here. But for that to happen, a new culture of cleanliness needs to be inculcated, something which successive governments have failed to do.
Cleanliness needs to become a way of life, which unfortunately is not the case for too many people. And that is the way it has always been.
I remember as a child in the 1950s meeting some of my mother's friends who came to Hong Kong as tourists. 'I have never seen so many 'Please do not spit' signs anywhere in the world,' said one, mentioning, in particular, the signs on the Star ferries. Well, those signs are still there, which means spitting remains a serious problem. Even during the Sars crisis, when most people wore masks, some people were seen removing them to spit on the street.
The government, of course, ought to set an example for the citizenry. But it continues to allow only partly treated sewage to be dumped into the harbour on a daily basis. If the government behaves in this fashion, is it any wonder that residents think it is acceptable to throw their rubbish on to the streets?
Many young people do not know that the harbour used to be so clean you could swim in it. In fact, there used to be highly publicised cross-harbour swimming events each year. But that was a long time ago. No one in their right mind would dream of taking a dip there now.
I read in the papers that health inspectors are now checking restaurants to make sure their hygiene standards are acceptable. In particular, they are checking the toilets. I have been in some restaurant toilets where there was a single urinal and a wash basin, virtually on the same level, separated only by an inch. I do not know how such a restaurant could have received government approval to operate in the first place.
It is great that the government is telling restaurants to see to it that their toilets do not smell. It would be an even greater achievement if the government could see to it that public toilets do not smell. After all, cleanliness, like charity, begins at home and the government should take the lead. Another of my pet peeves is people who do not wash their hands after using the toilet.