The nervousness of the officials selling the plan for a third airport runway last week was matched only by the impressive line-up of the lobbying team. The voice of politicians and academics backing the plan swamped the airwaves for days after it was announced.
The authority knows it has a tough plan to sell: a price tag of HK$136 billion, the biggest reclamation of land since the handover, an irreversible damage to an important dolphin habitat, and a yet-to-be quantified impact to climate change and air quality. Despite the adverse impact, the best chance for the government to convince the community of its plan is to adopt an honest approach in public engagement.
Economists and commentators were quick to question the authority's estimate of economic return - HK$912 billion over 50 years. But the biggest surprise of the plan was not what it contains, but what it omits despite years of preparation.
In 2007, when Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was pursuing his second term, he promised a grand plan to link up the Hong Kong and Shenzhen airports with a high-speed rail line. At that time, this was touted as an ingenious way to integrate the two airports and to enhance Hong Kong's competitive position as an air traffic hub. Nothing much has been heard since.
Government officials were silent on this project in the launch last week. Has this been considered as an alternative or supplement to the third runway? If and when the third runway is built, are we going to spend another HK$100 billion or more on this rail link? If plans for the rail link have been dumped, don't Hongkongers have the right to know even though that means the chief executive may lose face over yet another broken promise?
The people cannot be expected to decide on the basis of incomplete options, which should include not just the rail link, but other possibilities such as a shorter third runway to cater primarily for mainland-bound flights.
