I refer to the article 'Let bygones be bygones' (July 18), by Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, on the decision of the Court of Final Appeal on civil service pay cuts.
The court's decision was not surprising to me and after your vitriolic leader ('Pay ruling a step forward for reform', July 14), the more conciliatory and balanced tone of Dr Cheung's article was refreshing. However, I wonder if his exhortations for both sides to put the issue aside and work together are wishful thinking, given the administration's avowed aim to cut allowances further.
As a police officer and Hong Kong resident for 22 years, I am quite aware that there is no sympathy in the community or the media for the 'conditions of service' that are now referred to as fringe benefits. This brings me to the question of education allowances, which are likely to be abolished in the near future. Though childless myself, many of my colleagues are recipients, and I note that the effect of allowances has been that a large number of otherwise ordinary Hong Kong families have been able to educate their children in a manner which would otherwise have been completely beyond their reach. The majority of recipients are low in rank, live in small flats, survive on small salaries and have to endure family hardship to better educate their children, in spite of the extra that the scheme provides.
They are not the 'fat cats' the civil service is so often portrayed as being comprised of, but are as representative of the ordinary citizen as any other group, maybe more so as they are among those who pay some 89 per cent of all income tax. They deserve to keep this allowance.
PAUL MOUNSEY, Mid-Levels
Helping young doctors
