Hong Kong needs its best of the best in public service: pay cuts are hardly an incentive

With all due respect, when Alex Lo speaks out against raising the pay of politicians (“Politicians should have their pay docked, not raised”, February 11), he fails to see the other side of the argument.

While we expect serving in public office to be a reward in itself, we should not ask our politicians-to-be to forego their lifestyles or normal career progression, as it will make it more difficult to attract talent to the public service.

Alex Lo quotes the examples of some legislators (and there are more) who are considerably well-off, but fails to consider the others.

Some legislators might have had a prominent career in the private sector and being able to hold public office is already quite an indication of their capacity. Even district councillors who have other positions (public or private) are giving up precious time in their daily lives for the public good. And, by any standard, public office is unfortunately no longer the desire of everyone, even those who clearly have the interests of the people at heart.

In fact, nowadays, going into politics entails high scrutiny of a person’s private life (as it should) as well as job insecurity; the wrong comment at an off-guard moment can get you thrown out. No wonder there was apparently some difficulty after the last chief executive election to get names for the high-ranking posts, as many candidates who were sounded out quickly rejected the offers.

The government is our biggest enterprise and we should have the best of the best leading it – we cannot spare any cost in that regard.

Jose Alvares, Macau