Pragmatism and wisdom can help us shape a better future together

The chief executive's latest policy address can hardly be called exciting. Other than a pilot scheme to help public housing tenants own homes at more affordable prices, few other items can be said to have attracted the public's imagination.

But this is the chief executive's mid-term policy address. With fewer than three years to go, it would be futile and even irresponsible to venture into new initiatives. He has done exactly what he should be doing: account for the fruits of what he has grown; attend to seedlings that are still growing; and plough on to plant the remaining seeds that are ready to be sown.

Take land and housing supply, for example. It is "the priority of the priorities", as the chief executive himself has declared time and again. The wish list in his previous policy addresses has now been turned into firm production figures.

The quest for more land remains an uphill battle, but the road maps have become much clearer. What we need now is to whip up broad community support so we may speed up production. We have delivered miracles on this front before, and can surely do it again.

Retirement protection, a controversial yet increasingly pressing subject that we had tried in vain to get going for the past two decades, is another example. The chief executive has signalled his determination to move forward by earmarking HK$50 billion for future needs.

The remaining challenge is for all stakeholders to deliberate constructively on the complexities already highlighted in social welfare specialist Professor Nelson Chow Wing-sun's study report. The aim should be to agree on a practicable and sustainable scheme so we can start working on it before the current government steps down.

Amid these grand schemes, the chief executive has not forgotten the underprivileged. I am particularly heartened by the support he expressed for mental health patients and former patients; pupils with special educational needs; ethnic minorities and new immigrants.

These unfortunate residents are often neglected by the populace. Now that they are at last getting attention from the very top, I ask that the bureau secretaries concerned pay personal attention to how these programmes are to be funded and implemented, and ensure that they will be effective.

We are a people blessed by our pragmatism and wisdom to overcome and to achieve. The clash over constitutional reform might have left considerable bitterness, but we continue to share our fate together in this unique community. We must seize the opportunities offered in this policy address and move forward together.

Lam Woon-kwong is convenor of the Executive Council