Doing a good job in leading a taskforce to better manage the city's trees could help the chief secretary's chances of securing the top spot if he runs for chief executive, a lawmaker suggested yesterday.
Civic Party lawmaker Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, speaking on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong yesterday, said the assignment could provide 'a new lease of life, at least for the trees'.
Henry Tang Ying-yen was assigned to oversee ways to improve the management of trees, a day after the Coroner's Court ruled that the death of a 19-year-old university student - who was crushed by a tree in Stanley - could have been prevented. He will head a taskforce to study the recommendations put forward by the jury and conduct a risk assessment of the city's trees.
'Some say that [his] appointment as tree captain is an indication of [being] sidelined, but don't forget that the last time a chief secretary was put in charge of the clean team, he later became our chief executive,' said Ms Eu, referring to when Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was chief secretary and charged with cleaning up the city after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003.
Mr Tang, the second-most senior official, is widely tipped to run in the next chief executive election in 2012.