Education Secretary Eddie Ng Hak-kim faces a hard political lesson
Despite his successful corporate career and public service record, Eddie Ng Hak-kim has to learn to manage the challenges of his ministry
Education Secretary Eddie Ng Hak-kim could be Hong Kong's best known education minister ever. But that's not a good thing.
Ng, 59, has only been in politics for two months and is already one of the least popular ministers in local history. Some 48 per cent of respondents gave him a vote of no confidence in a survey by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme this month.
The figure rose by a stunning 20 per cent in just one month. But the survey also found that Ng still enjoyed diehard support, with 20 per cent of respondents expressing confidence in him.
The problem is national education. Ng is unfortunate enough to have been given the job of defending the government's policy to introduce patriotism lessons to all schools in the face of opposition from parents, teachers and the pupils themselves.
The result is one of the biggest political storms in Hong Kong's history.
The debate arose from efforts to instil in the city's young generation a sense of belonging to the motherland. It followed criticism that they were not showing sufficient passion for the mainland.
Ng, a veteran corporate executive before answering Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's call to join his new government, has said that lifelong learning is key for the city to stay competitive in the globalised world.