OpinionSilence over Cathay Pacific bailout shows lawmakers are complicit in their own demise

Name: Hong Kong government to bail out Cathay Pacific with HK$30 billion in loans and direct stake
Uploaded: 2020-06-14T22:30:20.000Z
Duration: 1 min 29 s
Description: Hong Kong government to bail out Cathay Pacific with HK$30 billion in loans and direct stake

Lawmakers made thousands of Ocean Park employees sweat for months over a smaller bailout that was only voted through at the last minute

Urgent and important matters deemed too sensitive for the legislature raise questions over whether we need lawmakers at all

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A cargo aircraft operated by Cathay Pacific Airways takes off from Hong Kong International Airport on June 9. Cathay Pacific became the latest global carrier to seek a lifeline in the aftermath of Covid-19 travel restrictions, outlining a plan to raise HK$39 billion ($5 billion) from the Hong Kong government and shareholders after months of warnings about the frailty of its business. Photo: Bloomberg

Alice Wu

Published: 6:30am, 15 Jun 2020Updated: 6:30am, 15 Jun 2020

Last Tuesday, the government announced it would dish out HK$39 billion (US$5 billion) to keep Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong’s flag carrier, afloat. So far, the sole “criticism” has come from Civic Party lawmaker and former Cathay pilot Jeremy Tam Man-ho over the fact the government has not included job security guarantees as part of its bailout conditions.

Compared with the lengths lawmakers have gone to, to express their misgivings over other government decisions, this is nothing. Where is the outrage when lawmakers are denied the chance to put the government under heavy scrutiny over what they consider to be deserving of government funding?

It was not that long ago lawmakers finally, after months of discussion, decided the fate of Hong Kong’s home-grown theme park Ocean Park, which reopened this past weekend. The park’s request to receive a government funded lifeline was considered “controversial” and was intensely scrutinised.

The thousands the park employs were made to sweat for months for the HK$5.4 billion bailout that was only put to a vote and approved by lawmakers after it went down to the wire – an overly dramatic and cruel process compared with what Cathay Pacific had to “endure.”

For its HK$39 billion, Cathay has to endure having two additional “observers” assigned by the government at board meetings, with officials promising to be hands-off in day-to-day operations.

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Hong Kong government to bail out Cathay Pacific with HK$30 billion in loans and direct stake

For the first time, the Hong Kong government has injected money and taken a direct stake in a private company. The government came to Cathay’s rescue by taking money out of the Land Fund, which is managed under the Exchange Fund.