Formulating a policy address is no easy task. For Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the second - and last - policy speech of his two-year term is anything but a routine work plan.
Should the October speech be a report card of his achievements and failures since he took over from Tung Chee-hwa last year? Should he set out a business-as-usual policy agenda and work programme for the remaining months of his term? Or should he describe a blueprint of his agenda beyond next year - on the assumption that he will contest, and win, the chief executive election?
These are the difficult choices confronting Mr Tsang as he begins his pre-address consultation meetings with groups such as professionals, unionists and legislators this week.
From the start of his term, Mr Tsang was keenly aware of the importance of managing expectations - in view of the precarious political circumstances surrounding his elevation. To avoid a perception that his would be a caretaker administration, he gave himself three major tasks to complete. They were the constitutional reform blueprint, the West Kowloon Cultural District project and the new government office complex on the Tamar waterfront.
He achieved one and failed miserably in the other two. After the constitutional reform blueprint was vetoed in December, he set up the Commission on Strategic Development to discuss a road map and timetable for universal suffrage.
In the face of fierce opposition, the government abandoned the single-developer model and canopy design for the West Kowloon arts hub, sending the project back to the drawing board. The only consolation was winning the Legislative Council's funding approval for the Tamar project, after an intensive propaganda drive and bargaining among major political parties.
A raft of difficult, contentious issues has been effectively pushed to one side, to avoid disturbing the socio-political environment in the lead-up to the chief executive race in March.
