Letters | Lesson from Tai Po fire: Hong Kong must close the regulatory loopholes
Readers discuss the scourge of dishonest practices in industries, creating longer breaks for Hong Kong workers, combating illegal parking, and the live-fire drills around Taiwan
I can’t help linking this disaster to something I witnessed years ago. In the 1980s, when I was still in secondary school, I took a one-month summer job in a factory assembling hairdryers for export. Short as it was, the experience stayed with me.
Once we were told inspectors from a certification body were coming, the boss gave us very specific instructions. He told us to place only the properly assembled units around the edges of the shipment, where inspectors were most likely to take samples. This was deliberate fraud. When inspectors arrived, they checked the paperwork and sampled from the outer areas. They never reached the centre. The inspection was passed, while the buyer suffered.
At the time, no one found this unusual. It was simply how inspections were expected to work. Looking back, what strikes me now is how unacceptable such practices are – and how disturbingly similar assumptions still appear in government regulation today.
There were inspections at Wang Fuk Court. There were certificates. There were procedures. Yet the disaster still happened. This should force an honest admission: many officials either do not understand, or choose not to confront, the dishonest practices within parts of the construction and maintenance industries.
Documents can be prepared. Inspections can be anticipated. Loopholes can be exploited. This is not accidental; it is predictable behaviour driven by profit. To continue regulating as if all parties act in good faith is negligent.