Is Hong Kong’s Leung Chun-ying a god of small promises?
A look at the modest proposals in the chief executive’s high-level policy address
Longer pedestrian crossing times. Public toilets with non-slip surfaces. Faster and more plentiful Wi-Fi. The list goes on.
These announcements – of a scale one might expect to be uttered by a District Council candidate – were solemnly delivered on Wednesday by Leung Chun-ying during his last full-year address as chief executive.
Not everyone came away impressed.
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“That’s so sweet,” wrote one netizen in the popular media forum HKGolden. “He’s using his policy address to make announcements about what to do with toilets.”
The netizen added: “He’s like me when I was writing my Chinese essay back in school, trying hard to lengthen his work.”
There was no shortage of ‘person bowing deeply’ emojis following such observations.
One could understand the perplexity. In Leung’s glossy 76-page policy address report, there was little mention of the livelihood issues that many in Hong Kong were expecting to be raised.
The report’s section on retirement protection amounted to just one paragraph, a mere 39 words long. Leung repeated that the Commission on Poverty was conducting a public engagement exercise on the matter.
Separately, the section on standard working hours also ran a paragraph long (46 words). It noted that the Standard Working Hours Committee would soon conduct another round of consultation. The report was silent, however, on plans or ideas for the Mandatory Provident Scheme’s controversial offsetting mechanism.
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What took the spotlight from these important matters? Five modest government proposals:
1. Possibly using information technology to give pedestrians, namely the elderly and needy, more time to cross road junctions.
2. Apart from fitting public toilets with non-slip surfaces, auto-sensor water taps and handrails in accord with prevailing design standards, installing additional age-friendly facilities where practicable, and possibly providing larger toilet compartments in newly-built public toilets for priority use by the elderly.
3. Additional chairs or priority seats for the elderly in public facilities such as markets, swimming pools and sports centres, and more age-friendly design when planning and constructing new public space and facilities.
4. At the end of this year, constructing three lift and pedestrian walkway systems in Tsing Yi, Kwai Chung and Kowloon City, and building an elevated walkway in Tseung Kwan O as well as a footbridge in Tsuen Wan for the public’s enhanced convenience.
5. Within three years, doubling the number of public Wi-Fi hot spots to 34,000. Wi-Fi speed at government venues will also be progressively doubled and security enhanced.
It would appear the chief executive is honouring his campaign slogan that there’s nothing trivial in livelihood matters. And, however modest, the achievements might rank as some of his most noteworthy.
