Opinion | Face it, Hong Kong: with our worsening quality of life and declining freedoms, Singapore is Asia’s world city
- Michael Chugani says that two decades after Tung Chee-hwa promised to maintain Hong Kong’s liberties and enhance quality of life, the city is clearly going backwards in both categories
We're fresh into the Year of the Pig, so let's be nice to everyone. But being nice doesn’t mean truth-telling is off-limits. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
That’s exactly what I’m going to do with some hard truths that we, as Hongkongers, must face. One such hard fact hit us just a week ago as the city readied for the Lunar New Year.
It was 20 years ago that former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa branded Hong Kong as Asia’s world city in his annual policy speech, putting it on a par with New York and London.
Tung claimed the crown based on promises to make Hong Kong great. The ones that stood out when I reread them were commitments to maintaining the rule of law, freedom of expression and association, the free flow of information and openness and diversity, as well as the commitment to enhancing quality of life.
