bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Pan-democrats are political opportunists

Following the resignation of Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun as head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, lawmakers expressed their views on television.

The pan-democrats welcomed the report of the commission of inquiry into alleged interference in the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Yeung Sum from the Democratic Party said education chief Arthur Li Kwok-cheung should stand down.

I accept that Mrs Law has made a mistake and this issue raised public concern.  But I  appeal to Mr Yeung  to focus on the problem and make some positive contribution to the debate, rather than suggesting people stand down.

Although I am only an ordinary Hong Kong  citizen, I can see  major problems in the political environment here.  The pan-democrats tend to exaggerate even when dealing with minor problems in order to get media attention.

They seek to gain more political capital and are now linking social issues to universal suffrage and urging people to join the July 1 pro-democracy rally.

I joined the July 1 march in 2003 to fight against the implementation of  Article 23 of the Basic Law.

However, I feel the pan-democrats go too far with their judicial reviews and trying to implement policies at the last minute.  The political environment has become litigious.

Readers may feel I am in the minority, but I am not the only person to express these views.

I am sure the pan-democrats would say that I am being short-sighted and they are trying to achieve long-term benefits for people like me and for Hong Kong.

I am tired of seeing the  confrontations between the government and Legco.

Let us loosen the straitjacket and work together to build up Hong Kong.

Jeff Leung, Wong Tai Sin

Chilling blast from the past

Your article ('Harmony in epic handover painting,' June 23) reported that Liu Yuyi's  earlier painting  fetched HK$23 million.

Other than the chance to  auction off his latest painting Halcyon Days Pearl,  I really do not see any merit in Liu and his daughter spending two years producing this mammoth work and presenting it  to the Hong Kong government. After all, where would we find a place to accommodate a work of that size except on the wall along the Cross Harbour Tunnel?

I found the theme of the picture  superficial, but also chilling.  It reminded me  of the days of Mao Zedong  ,  when propaganda paintings were commissioned to record and exalt every act of the supreme commander.

They were routinely filled with gorgeous colours, big crowds cheering, clapping hands and delivering oversized agricultural produce, like in this instance, a football-sized pearl.

When our country still practises child slavery in mines, I certainly would not share the heavenly festivities depicted on the faces of those dignitaries.

Perhaps Liu should use his talents to paint something truly memorable on the plight of people in Hong Kong to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the handover.

Helen C. Ma, Mid-Levels

Why this pay rise is wrong

We refer to the letter from Dan Waters on civil service pay ('Nothing new in pay gap debate,' June 28).

The Employers' Federation of Hong Kong  has always believed our civil servants should be well rewarded.  The fact that individuals in the public sector can find better-paid jobs in the private sector does not alter the fact that the bulk of civil servants are well paid and also have generous benefits.

Our objections are to the proposed rate of increase to civil service salaries that greatly exceeds the rate of increases in the private sector.  On top of an already  generous package, the government  proposes to increase salaries by almost double that of the private sector this year.

Civil servants have had pay reductions in the past. So have most people in the private sector. There are, of course, some well-paid individuals in the private sector, some of whom enjoy large bonuses. This is the way the system works. But to increase the bulk of civil servants' pay (and that of many subvented and comparable organisations) by almost double that enjoyed by the bulk of private sector employees must - sooner rather than later - be inflationary.

Businesses will leave Hong Kong - as they have before - if we are uncompetitive. For the government to contribute to this seems to us to be tragic.

Louis Pong, chief executive officer, Employers' Federation of Hong Kong

Brutal reality for many maids

Many domestic helpers can only dream of living in K. Singh's glorified vision of conditions for Hong Kong maids, complete with their own brick house ('Maids get really good deal with wages in HK,' June 27).

Your correspondent overlooks the fact that many  left families to send vital money back home.

The government does not check on the 'servant quarters' of maids and they have little choice of where they sleep. Whereas K. Singh went home each night after work,  maids work six days a week and are on call 24 hours.

I  know of maids who don't get any days off and are too scared to say anything  for fear of being sent home.   And I know  of maids who have been beaten by  employers.

I find it deplorable that K. Singh rails against virtually voiceless maids when his main concern appears to be against an establishment which has not valued your correspondent's efforts enough.

Rosa Chan, Lai Chi Kok

Skewed logic

Regina Ip's column ('A needless tax,' June 18) began well, maintaining that the HK$400 tax imposed on contracts for foreign domestic helpers was needless and unjust.

The rationale had been that employers of domestic workers should pay the same levy as other employees of foreign workers, for example, those in the construction industry.

However, she admits that this was 'defeated by the fact the imposition of the HK$400 levy was accompanied by a reduction in the minimum wage for foreign helpers of exactly the same amount'.

Her solution: 'The government should put an end to the levy and refund, on average, HK$18,000 to each (wait for it)  employer.'

Run that by me again Regina.

Wendy McTavish, Central

Nuclear Bambi

Although I agree with Robert Wilson ('Nuclear solution in Hong Kong offers eco-friendly alternative,' June 16) that switching to nuclear power could alleviate a great portion of our home-grown air pollution, storing the nuclear waste under our country parks doesn't sound like the best idea.

Consider that the storage tanks would probably be made by the lowest bidder from across the border. Could you just imagine Bambi glowing in the dark?  I would never set foot in that kind of park again.

A permanent, secure disposal area away from populated areas would have to be made, but that's a much smaller sacrifice than churning up more earth for more coal and spewing that choking stench into the atmosphere.

One  major reason Japan is such a clean country  is because they made the nuclear switch.

James Warren, Tsz Wan Shan



Will China’s might capsize the Philippines’ ‘most powerful coastguard’ ambitions?

Defence of Guam: US conducts first ballistic missile intercept amid contest with China

China’s naval base handover in Cambodia: a sign of waning US influence?

Philippines’ Marcos Jnr rejects call to send warships to South China Sea: ‘we’re not at war’

South China Sea

Letters