Tsang should make U-turn on ill-conceived light-bulb initiative

Your editorial ('Bulb saga shows Tsang is politically in the dark', October 17) says Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah has been quick to claim ownership of the light-bulb-voucher initiative.

However, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has been shown by this affair to be politically tone deaf.

Indeed, during the administration's top-level deliberations on the contents of the policy address, Mr Tsang should have been aware of the potential conflict of interest and the fallout that would follow, given that his son's father-in-law owns a company which is already in a strong market position and will benefit directly from the scheme.

As Mr Yau has admitted that his bureau was the originator of the light-bulb-voucher initiative, it is not conducive, at least for the time being, to simply lay the blame on Mr Tsang.

Rather, the environment minister owes the public a detailed explanation of how such an ill-conceived policy initiative was evolved.

As the light-bulb saga continues, Mr Yau's poorly thought-out voucher gimmick, which has been hastily adopted by Mr Tsang and that targets almost 2.5 million households in the city, is evidently causing his boss a great deal of embarrassment and is politically damaging.

Some government policies are pushed out with particular business sectors bound to gain from them, but at the expense of the public. The Mandatory Provident Fund is a case in point.