How can someone with limited administrative skills run HK?
If US President Barack Obama - who is seeking re-election next year - told the American people, 'I am clueless about the economy but I'll get experts to teach me ... and I don't have much administrative skill either', how would the country react? His Republican rivals would turn him into a punching bag. And voters would dismiss him as a clown candidate. But that's exactly what Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai (pictured) - a possible candidate in next year's chief executive election - said. Yet she remains the most popular among three likely candidates. Why aren't her rivals creaming her? And why aren't people asking: how can someone with limited administrative skills, who knows nothing about the economy, run Hong Kong? Are people afraid to speak up, or are they not bothering since they can't vote anyway?
Tear down Chungking Mansions - a disaster waiting to happen
The late US president Ronald Reagan issued this challenge to former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev regarding the Berlin Wall - a cold war-era symbol of communism: 'Tear down this wall.' Public Eye has this challenge for our government: 'Tear down Chungking Mansions'. It's a fire trap, a slum, a disgrace, an eyesore and a disaster waiting to happen. It houses nests of drug dealers, sex workers, illegal immigrants and unlicensed guest houses. Its subdivided flats, which offer cheap accommodation to shady characters, are fire traps. Yet we promote this shame of a building as a tourist attraction.
'The Door' sends the wrong kind of message to the people
It's known as 'The Door' due to its design - and the government is making sure its pricey new Tamar headquarters is true to its name. It designed the extravagant harbourfront headquarters in such a way that legislators must pass through it to reach the new Legislative Council building. That may seem like no big deal, but it stinks. It sends the message that our overpaid, unelected bureaucrats rank higher than the people's elected representatives. It makes the statement that the legislative branch is subordinate to the executive branch, and that there's no separation of power. The Door, by the way, is no such thing. Heightened security will make sure it is shut to protesters who will be kept well away from the government headquarters and legislature.
