Hong Kong governance will remain a challenge with or without CY Leung: Jasper Tsang

Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing says governance will remain difficult even if Leung Chun-ying successfully seeks another term of office in 2017.

This will apply to Leung or whoever will become Hong Kong’s next leader, Tsang added, because the 2017 chief executive election is sure to remain a small-circle game, without “one person, one vote”,

“The worry is real,” Tsang said in a TVB talk show this morning. He referred to earlier government publicity on the political reform package, which told people that if the reform scheme was not passed, the 2017 race would only be a matter of 1,200 people who would be “watching TV only”.

“This scenario has been ‘implanted’ in people’s minds,” he said, “and it would be difficult for the [chief executive] to build up his or her authority in governance”. 

The administration would find politics and opposition everywhere - for example, in its bid to find housing land, he added.

Meanwhile, the veteran politician said he did not find himself the “target” in the recent exposé of lawmakers’ Whatsapp chats, which showed the Legco president taking part in the pro-establishment camp’s discussion on strategy during the reform vote last month.