One of the main functions of the director of the Chief Executive's Office, Lam Woon-kwong, is to protect his boss's image. But he can hardly be described as doing a good job.
In a previous column, I argued that Tung Chee-hwa himself was a problem rather than part of the solution to facilitate better communication between the Hong Kong government and Beijing.
In a written reply, Mr Lam sought to dismiss my criticism as groundless. He suggested, for example, that architect Leo Daly was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star because of his outstanding achievement in promoting close ties between Hong Kong and the US. He did not elaborate. This only served to bolster my suggestion that Mr Daly had, in fact, been honoured because he helped pave the way for Mr Tung to meet US President George W. Bush.
The controversy stemmed from Mr Tung's question and answer session in the Legislative Council two weeks ago. I pointed out that he had even failed to communicate effectively with Beijing in co-ordinating the announcement of York Chow Yat-ngok's appointment as secretary for health, welfare and food.
Kwok Ka-ki, who represents the medical functional constituency, picked up the topic and questioned the administration in Legco. The then Acting Chief Secretary, Michael Suen Ming-yeung, admitted that there had been communication and procedural problems, thus revealing that I had not imagined the issue.
During the session, Mr Tung said that he believed the relationship between the executive and legislative branches needed to be built on mutual trust and communication.
The Legco secretariat has yet to come up with an official English version of the transcript of the session. Therefore, I will paraphrase Mr Tung's reply to my question about his communication failure.
