Forget universal suffrage, reform the government instead
- Bad habits need to be broken, particularly with land, and system that enables privileged minority to profit disproportionately from public resource
Political reform does not equate to universal suffrage. That, I am sorry to tell you, is a dead end. But there can still be genuine and responsive improvement in governance. Otherwise, the city can just go down the proverbial drain in the run-up to 2047.
After this crisis ends, it’s imperative that the government starts reforming itself root and branch; resorting to “business as usual” would not only be irresponsible but criminal.
It does not have to be too painful. It’s a matter of breaking some ingrained bad habits that have been raised by boneheaded officials to the level of unchangeable policies set in stone. Look where that has got us!
One word: land. Once we recognise the Hong Kong government (or rather China) owns all the land, the idea that we have a free or fair enterprise system becomes untenable.
Why are young people in Hong Kong so angry?
What we do have is a land system that enables a privileged minority to profit disproportionately from a public resource and act as rentiers who impose a hidden “tax” on everyone else. Their wealth does impoverish many others.
Someone who has lived in Hong Kong and another high-tax developed economy, say, Germany or Canada, will know the difference. We pay little tax here but spend most of our income on mortgage payments or high rents. Our counterparts pay much more in taxes but can afford liveable, even large homes.
If all land is public land, then everyone is entitled to a share of its monetisation or its physical use by virtue of their citizenship or permanent residency. That’s not social welfare, a big white lie told by our landed gentry. Think of oil and gas, and the revenue they generate, for the people of Norway. For Hong Kong people, that public resource is land.
Mortgages taking 70 per cent of monthly income: Hong Kong finance chief
If you accept this argument, then the vicious cycle of land sales and infrastructure spending has to stop. One in HK$5 (US$0.64) of government revenue comes from land sales. But that goes into an infrastructure fund and cannot be used for any other purposes.
That’s partly why the government, developers and big construction companies are effectively a monopoly gang. It’s also why we have so many white elephants: we don’t build because there is a need; we just have a need to build.
All that money can be used to benefit many people in any number of ways, so they won’t turn into bomb-throwing mobs again.
