Engage political parties, Mr Tsang
On Thursday, the central government formally approved the resignation of chief secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, opening the way for him to begin his election campaign for the post of chief executive.
To most Hong Kong people and the international community, it is a foregone conclusion that he will win.
It is regrettable, although not surprising, that Mr Tsang has refused to debate with the other prospective candidates, Democratic Party chief Lee Wing-tat and legislator Chim Pui-chung, unless they get the required 100 nominations from the 800-member Election Committee. This is disingenuous, because everyone knows that only Mr Tsang will achieve that.
Besides refusing to debate with other candidates, Mr Tsang will also not attend election forums organised by non-governmental organisations and professional groups. This flies in the face of his undertaking that he will face not only the Election Committee, but also the entire community.
Among his many utterances, Mr Tsang indicated that he would make some changes to the operation of the Executive Council. In future, only the chief secretary, the financial secretary and the secretary for justice will regularly attend Exco meetings. Other principal officials will attend only when there are issues which relate to their area of responsibility. The places vacated by the officials will be filled by politicians, businesspeople and other professionals.
According to Article 54 of the Basic Law, Exco is an organ for assisting the chief executive in policy-making, and members are appointed by Hong Kong's leader.
When former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa introduced the 'accountability system' in 2002, the general understanding was that principal officials themselves and the administration as a whole would make policy decisions. Together and separately, they would be held accountable. The system has not worked well, but I agree with the underlying principle.
Under the system, principal officials should be equivalent to government ministers in other jurisdictions. Besides being responsible for their own portfolios, they should be members of the cabinet and participate in discussions on other areas.
In democratic countries, governments are run by ruling parties or ruling coalitions, and ministers are often drawn from them. This ensures that the executive authorities share power and responsibility with the ruling parties. In return, the parties offer the executive authorities stable support in the legislature.
For all kinds of reasons, Hong Kong is not allowed to follow this tried-and-tested model. Beijing, local business tycoons and top bureaucrats have little confidence in local political parties and, thus, they would not endorse a system in which the parties could hold sway. Given such a mindset, to think that Mr Tsang can work harmoniously with the legislature is wishful thinking.
To solve the problem of governance, he must recognise the role of political parties and allow them to take their rightful place in the government. Tinkering with the system, or reverting to the colonial practice under British rule is not a recipe for success.
Mr Tsang should tell his principal officials to seek the views of legislators on policy and financial proposals at the formulation stage, instead of briefing them after the decision has been made.
Officials should regularly attend Legislative Council committee and panel meetings, taking every opportunity to work closely with legislators. They should take political parties into their confidence and work with the ruling coalition so that they can govern together.
In this way, even though the chief executive is not directly elected, political parties - whose members are - will inject a certain level of public accountability into the system.
Emily Lau Wai-hing is a legislative councillor for The Frontier
