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Opinion
Opinion
by Alice Wu
Opinion
by Alice Wu
Hong Kong’s financial secretary proves he’s a cut above his boss and fellow ministers – in political acumen
- Paul Chan did a masterful job managing expectations before announcing a budget featuring a crowd-pleasing HK$10,000 handout
- Hong Kong needs more such measures, which address the needs of ordinary people, not grandstanding in the form of massive funding for improving the rule of law
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has once again showed extraordinary talent in avoiding a lot of the flak his boss and teammates have had to brave. For one, Chan made sure he repeated all the right tactics he employed in the 2019-2020 budget, particularly managing expectations. And boy, manage public expectations he did this year.
In the run-up to his budget speech, Chan made sure to talk a fair bit about our “finite resources” and to warn us about the impact of a huge deficit in the current financial year. Paired with the widespread pessimism that has persisted in recent months, Chan struck the right tone again this year – having prepared all for worse, he delivered more.
In terms of political acumen, Chan has proven himself to be a cut above the rest of the administration. Perhaps this is why Chan was able to pull off something his boss couldn’t – delivering a complete speech in the Legislative Council.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had to deliver her policy address by video in October but the usual political pack heckling government ministers spared Chan and his speech. Chan may have escaped his boss’ fate because the budget is an appropriations bill subject to legislative procedure, but it is still significant that he was allowed to complete his speech.
And so it is: money talks. The rest is dross.
Lam tried to steal Chan’s thunder this year — as she has done in the past – by pre-empting his budget with the HK$30 billion funding plan to offset the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. Chan was unfazed for he knew the HK$10,000 cash handout would strike gold, albeit not with everyone.
Chan, who had been adamant against cash handouts, buckled under intense public pressure in 2018 and birthed the Caring and Sharing Scheme, allowing eligible Hong Kong residents to apply for a HK$4,000 handout. And since various parties and interest groups across the political spectrum had asked for a handout this year, Chan recognised this as his political lifeline.
Chan called the giveaway an “exceptional measure taken in the light of the current unique circumstances” but we know better. Some pro-democracy lawmakers have since branded the handout ransom for increasing the budget for the police and hush money for poor governance, but it is more a form of political indulgence than bribery.
The Labour Party’s Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung is quite correct to say that the money “can’t expiate your sins, as misgovernance has caused a serious viral outbreak”. It would be wise for the government to accept now rather than later that the handout does not equate to political penance for its failures of the past year, which have been as devastating as they have been spectacular.
The handout is drawn on the treasury of merit of administrations past. The current government cannot escape the need for it to rack up a huge amount of goodwill to escape the current political hell Lam and her team are in.
Throwing Hong Kong businesses a lifeline is a good example: government-guaranteed loans for small and medium-sized enterprises and extended subsidies on utility bills are little drops of water and little grains of sand. We will need a lot more of them to make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land. The stuff of these drops and grains are down-to-earth measures that help ordinary people cope with the most mundane of challenges.
S&P sees city economy ‘gradually weakening’ amid deficit, spending increases
S&P sees city economy ‘gradually weakening’ amid deficit, spending increases
It is high time this administration stop political posturing, which really is not its forte. Take, for example, the HK$450 million earmarked for the “Vision 2030 for Rule of Law” project in the budget. Perhaps it is there to please Beijing and plays to the tune of Hongkongers needing to be taught the importance of the rule of law, but it is meaningless.
We can hardly see beyond next week – just ask parents with schoolchildren cooped up at home due to school closures. Our sights are only set on the daily infection numbers and the our stock of face masks. So this vision for the rule of law smacks of the sort of bad politics that got this government in trouble in the first place.
Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Finance minister shows he is a cut above his boss
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