Editorial | Hong Kong patriotic groups must chew over criticism of too elaborate banquet
- Negative culture of networking and adulation reflected in 43-table send-off for middle-ranking Hong Kong civil servant, who is going to study in Beijing
Wining and dining seldom plays out well when officialdom is involved. The controversy that saw the pro-Beijing camp coming under fire for throwing a large-scale farewell banquet for a district officer has raised more than image and perception issues.
It reflects a negative culture of networking and adulation among the patriotic groups that does little for confidence in district governance revamp.
Common sense would say sending off a middle-ranking civil servant with a 43-table banquet is going too far.
Regrettably, Wong Tai Sin District Officer Steve Wong Chi-wah and the 500-odd participants saw nothing wrong until the dinner at a Kowloon Bay restaurant came under fire.
A picture showed Wong, who is leaving to study in Beijing, flanked by hundreds of smiling guests inside a grand banquet hall, all holding a leaflet with his caricature and giving him the thumbs-up.
We do not know how many district officers have been given such an honour when leaving the post. According to the organiser, the Kowloon Federation of Associations, it has become a “tradition” in Wong Tai Sin to bid farewell to outgoing district officers.
Wong later apologised for causing the negative perception, after former chief executive Leung Chun-ying criticised the event and called for an end to what he described as growing “ostentatious and extravagant” practices by the pro-establishment camp.