Government consultation in Hong Kong has generally had a less than stellar reputation; the latest conclusion to come from a consultation on whether Hong Kong should bid for the 2023 Asian Games has further tested the people's patience. The original document was already thin on information, taking up only 15 pages. After six weeks, when the government realised the public was strongly against the idea and that even its political allies could not support it in the face of such opposition, it extended the consultation period for a further four weeks, coincidentally covering the entirety of the recent Asian Games in Guangzhou, where our athletes had considerable success. It then halved the estimated budget, misunderstanding the opposition as being about affordability rather than prudent development of a sports policy, then confused the public's enjoyment of watching our national athletes succeed on television as an indication of support for a bid to hold the Asian Games here.
And in spite of all these interpretative games with public opinion, the result - even through government-sponsored surveys - was still that more people opposed the bid than supported it. Nonetheless, Secretary for Home Affairs, Tsang Tak-sing claimed a victory for his agenda.
Today, lawmakers have the opportunity to put an end to this absurdity and vote to shelve the bid completely. But whatever the outcome of the vote, it seems likely that he will insist on tabling the project for funding anyway.
Tsang is correct to say that there is support for long-term sports development. And the chief executive may be correct to say that 'regularly organising international sports events ... provide competition opportunities for our athletes'. But Tsang has shown no evidence that we will come up with a sports development policy through hosting the Asian Games. And the chief executive's argument does not support this objective. If regular competition is the priority, then surely this once-in-a-lifetime hosting of a vanity project should not be given a second thought.
