Hong Kong’s three ‘mountains’ — the MTR, MPF and Link Reit – are now the foothills of an Everest of public discontent that Carrie Lam must climb

When she was chief secretary, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, now Hong Kong’s chief executive, caused a great deal of surprise by saying that the government had three “mountains” or contentious issues to conquer: the Mandatory Provident Fund, the MTR and the Link Reit. Over three years later, those mountains appear like foothills at the base of Everest.

The MPF was designed in a rush as the colonial government exited and is unfit for purpose. Among its many deficiencies, the offset mechanism allows employers to use workers’ pensions to pay for their own redundancy. The government was to repeal that in 2020 – well, good luck with that.

Then, chief secretary Lam worried about the MTR’s habit of raising fares. In April, I wrote that the MTR’s latest annual report revealed that the four top MTR officials were paid a total of HK$31.1 million, with the chief executive getting HK$11.8 million – in a difficult year. Clearly the MTR is transit for the masses, gold for the few.

Why does a public service like the MTR, owned by a government that made a HK$138 billion surplus last financial year, need to earn HK$18 billion a year? The company was established for the benefit of the people of Hong Kong and should not be making a profit. The commercial property arm of the business should support the rail business. The government has the power to immediately cut MTR fares by 20 per cent.

Now imagine the MTR peering into one of those joke mirrors that makes you look very fat; that’s the Link Reit. Formerly a government entity, which owned and managed public housing retail units serving the very poorest, it was privatised in 2005. The local residents are often elderly or people with disabilities, who need services like cha chaan tengs, wet markets, welfare centres and cornerstone hardware shops.