LettersIf Hong Kong system is broken, both the opposition and the government are to blame

On the one hand, it is gratifying to see letters that tell it like it is – such as Peter den Hartog’s of January 31 (“Dysfunctional city left behind by Shenzhen”) and Josephine Bersee’s of December 18 (“Just another city in China” is not an insult to Hong Kong”) – and that increasingly call out those of us still blindly echoing former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten and former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang in putting down mainland China and its cities.

But it must be said that it is shameless locals, especially the pan-democrat legislators, who have had a big hand in making Hong Kong dysfunctional, putting stumbling blocks in our ministers’ and civil servants’ way at every turn, making them appear so inept as to hardly deserve their fat salaries, while increasingly failing to look after our underprivileged citizens – including their livelihood, housing and health care concerns.

Nevertheless, the administrators are partly themselves to blame, not seeming to know their job and allowing the pan-democrats to run so badly amok, to continue with Occupy Central, for example. It is as if our administrators are looking over their shoulder at foreign countries that may grant or re-grant them the right of abode.