https://www.scmp.com/rss/12181/feed Philip Yeung is a former speech-writer to the president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and currently a freelance speech-writer and ghostwriter to local civic and government leaders. He is a guest lecturer at various tertiary institutions in Hong Kong and mainland China on public speaking and academic writing. He was educated at the University of Toronto. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com If you are down and out, you had best hightail it out of Hong Kong. This city of Rolls-Royce and Gucci bags is the only modern metropolis without a social safety net. Government officials must wrestle with two urgent concerns: “flatten the curve” of infections, and cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus. They are faltering on both counts. The government did buy itself a modicum of goodwill by announcing a HK$10,000 (US$1,300) cash handout for each adult permanent resident. But it will be... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3078738/hong-kongs-paltry-coronavirus-relief-cold-comfort-jobless-and-needy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3078738/hong-kongs-paltry-coronavirus-relief-cold-comfort-jobless-and-needy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Apr 2020 23:00:09 +0000 There is a question we have never asked ourselves: are we getting our money’s worth from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)? Prompted by the release of two seemingly unrelated reports – the HKMA’s 2018 annual report and the latest crime rates – the question can only be answered in the negative. Unlike other government agencies, HKMA has never come under scrutiny. This is because it is a body that is removed from the public, not being involved in the delivery of frontline services. Who among... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2184814/do-we-get-our-moneys-worth-hkma-it-would-seem-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2184814/do-we-get-our-moneys-worth-hkma-it-would-seem-not?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Feb 2019 12:15:15 +0000 Another day, another piece of warped thinking. Some government policies are the product of a small mind and a cruel heart. To this ignoble list must now be added another ingredient: intransigence, and you have the perfect recipe for misgovernance.  The latest act of folly is the bizarre decision to push back the age of eligibility for elderly welfare recipients, from 60 to 65, on the twisted logic that Hong Kong must prepare for an ageing population. The chief executive cited her own case to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2182304/hong-kong-must-roll-back-its-plan-raise-age-limit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2182304/hong-kong-must-roll-back-its-plan-raise-age-limit?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Jan 2019 22:15:15 +0000 Hong Kong public education is in crisis. The numbers don’t lie. A recent survey by the Hong Kong Psychological Society found 52.2 per cent of teachers showing symptoms of depression, plagued by hopelessness, fatigue and sleeplessness. A similar percentage of secondary school students are similarly afflicted. Unlike suicides, which have the power to shock, depression is invisible; it spares the government public embarrassment. But how is such a mutant system able to manufacture so much misery to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2179804/help-our-teachers-reform-hong-kongs-distorted?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2179804/help-our-teachers-reform-hong-kongs-distorted?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Dec 2018 02:15:30 +0000 If any “English as a second language” test has an oversized footprint in China, it is the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). With Donald Trump threatening to shut Chinese students out of US universities and colleges, it will grow even bigger, for the simple reason that it is the one test that is widely accepted in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand for higher education purposes – the spillover countries for America’s rejects. How big is IELTS? Last year, it had over 3... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2177403/how-english-testing-failing-chinese-students?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2177403/how-english-testing-failing-chinese-students?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Dec 2018 22:30:15 +0000 For Victor Mallet, an award-winning journalist for the Financial Times, things have come full circle. After Hong Kong rejected his visa renewal, he himself has become part of the international news. I feel sorry for him, though I think he deserved a signal of official displeasure, short of rejection, for his role in hosting the Foreign Correspondents’ Club talk by a Hong Kong independence advocate. Making Mallet sweat over the renewal would have been a strong enough message. Hong Kong, as a city... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2167453/fcc-has-behaved-rude-guest-hong-kong-didnt-need?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2167453/fcc-has-behaved-rude-guest-hong-kong-didnt-need?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Oct 2018 10:17:01 +0000 Once again, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is canvassing people for ideas to energise her upcoming policy address. Some greet this appeal as just another exercise in futility. Instead, they want her to ponder this question: do we have a government that takes more than it gives? The answer, if you judge by the overflowing coffers and the sorry sight of poor old scavengers in our streets, is an accusing “yes”. Hongkongers toil their entire lives and pay their taxes, only to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2166014/attention-hong-kong-bureaucrats-venture-outside?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2166014/attention-hong-kong-bureaucrats-venture-outside?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Sep 2018 23:00:00 +0000 Free speech is a sacred cow in universities. Every academic leader worth his salt swears to uphold it. However, as its limits are being tested, it has become a contentious, but also fuzzy, concept. A year ago, 10 university presidents issued a joint statement declaring their opposition to “Hong Kong independence”. But opposing it and banning talk of it are not the same thing. The head of Chinese University, for example, says that as long as the topic is discussed rationally and nonviolently, it... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2162907/if-hong-kong-encroaches-one-country-dont-cry-when?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2162907/if-hong-kong-encroaches-one-country-dont-cry-when?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Sep 2018 21:00:33 +0000 Usually circumspect in speech, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor uncharacteristically put her foot in her mouth in a recent media session. Visibly annoyed, she refused to field a question from an English media reporter, calling it “a waste of time”, and claiming it had already been covered in Cantonese. Facing a firestorm of criticism from the English-speaking community, Lam, to her credit, apologised. Was it a Freudian slip that reveals a deep-seated official attitude, or a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2154043/its-not-just-carrie-lam-hong-kong-whole-seems-have?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2154043/its-not-just-carrie-lam-hong-kong-whole-seems-have?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jul 2018 07:45:15 +0000 It is budget time. In what has become an annual ritual, the financial secretary has urged the public to give him ideas for a good financial plan of action. And, Paul Chan Mo-po is right: this year, more than ever, he can afford to be bold and creative. According to projections by professional accountants, Hong Kong won’t have to worry about running a deficit for the next 15 years – or perhaps ever – with this year’s surplus alone just shy of HK$160 billion. Our fiscal reserves have ballooned to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2133509/budget-surplus-can-help-free-our-elderly-poor-financial?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2133509/budget-surplus-can-help-free-our-elderly-poor-financial?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Feb 2018 06:03:53 +0000 Sooner or later, every property owner in Hong Kong will be tarred and feathered. It’s just a matter of when they get caught. I am referring to the prevalence of illegal structures in the city. The government is frantically trying to put the issue to bed before it claims the scalp of Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah. Like it or not, political scandals on illegal structures are a unique local phenomenon. I call it the Hong Kong syndrome. No way out: How Hong Kong’s subdivided flats are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2131995/home-improvements-should-not-be-illegal-hong-kong-renovate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2131995/home-improvements-should-not-be-illegal-hong-kong-renovate?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Feb 2018 04:32:15 +0000 Student rowdyism has erupted again in Hong Kong, this time at Baptist University with students crossing another red line while protesting against the university’s mandatory Mandarin test for graduation. Their behaviour was gangsterish, physically intimidating language teachers in a rant peppered with profanities.  If these are the fruits of the 3-3-4 reform (six years of secondary plus four years of university), then we are in trouble. These ugly episodes speak to the dismal failure of secondary... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2130198/unruly-students-hong-kong-are-product-failed-education?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2130198/unruly-students-hong-kong-are-product-failed-education?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jan 2018 01:49:27 +0000 The Chinese have a love-hate relationship with English. It is the “language of opportunity” – the passport to a coveted overseas education, a well-paid job or foreign citizenship. Zhang Lu, the photogenic English-speaking interpreter for top leaders, is mobbed everywhere she goes, while state interpreters of other languages remain obscure. But despite its prestige, English is taught unimaginatively on the mainland. Students there say the only significant learning occurs in the first three years... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2110113/why-cant-chinese-graduates-speak-good-english-blame-teaching?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2110113/why-cant-chinese-graduates-speak-good-english-blame-teaching?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Sep 2017 06:16:06 +0000 In a land of speculators, the manufacturing industry is often an afterthought in official economic thinking. Still, local manufacturers have coaxed a robust existence from a tough environment of high land prices and labour costs. The government pays lip service to economic diversification, but seems unready to make life easy for them. This sector has now mostly fled north. But recent years have seen a small-scale industrial rebirth. The Tai Po Industrial Estate, for example, is home to some of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2098428/why-put-recycling-plant-area-hong-kong-where-its-not-welcome?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2098428/why-put-recycling-plant-area-hong-kong-where-its-not-welcome?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Jun 2017 06:48:01 +0000 Rumours abound that Hong Kong’s chief executive-elect is considering Agnes Chan Miling, “the pop star with a PhD”, for the post of education secretary. That would be a stroke of genius. Hong Kong’s public education is in a sorry state; it has left children stressed out and is blamed for a spate of student suicides. Teachers are unhappy as well, reduced to drill sergeants, rather than mentors. Bureaucratic micro management has turned them into paper-shuffling, report-writing clerks. Parents... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2092251/why-pop-star-agnes-chan-hong-kongs-education-secretary-would?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2092251/why-pop-star-agnes-chan-hong-kongs-education-secretary-would?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 May 2017 04:04:27 +0000 The Democratic Party has become the party of negativity. And, if the utterances of its chairman are anything to go by, it is destined to become the party of futility. Shortly after the chief executive election, Wu Chi-wai appeared on a TV talk show along with former lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah. When Tong pressed him on why his party supported John Tsang Chun-wah – given the former finance chief’s reputation for being evasive and unresponsive in debates, and that his financial policies represented... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2086712/will-hong-kongs-democrats-see-reason-or-push-city-towards?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2086712/will-hong-kongs-democrats-see-reason-or-push-city-towards?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Apr 2017 04:06:19 +0000 One thing is for sure after the chief executive election: Hong Kong will be even more divided. This city has lost the art of compromise. The pan-democrats, with their knee-jerk reaction that “anyone Beijing favours, we oppose”, have demonised Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor while John Tsang Chun-wah, as her foil, has all the virtues. Now is the time to forget the labels and ask what kind of leader Hong Kong needs. The deep divisions cannot be wished away by smiles and good public relations vibes. We... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2081836/leader-hong-kong-needs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2081836/leader-hong-kong-needs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Mar 2017 03:33:13 +0000 Age is just a number, they say. But in Hong Kong, it is a sentence to a life of involuntary idleness, thanks to its unsophisticated approach to “ageing”, treating it as an undifferentiated concept, and making no distinction between muscle power and brain power. This lack of differentiation is wreaking havoc on the judiciary, with a shortfall of judges causing justice to be delayed. The problem is compounded by rigid civil service regulations that forbid judges from joining the private sector... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2058661/hong-kongs-rigid-retirement-rules-make-no-sense-city-fails?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2058661/hong-kongs-rigid-retirement-rules-make-no-sense-city-fails?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Jan 2017 06:26:59 +0000 God is said to move in mysterious ways. So, it seems, does Education Secretary Eddie Ng Hak-kim, until we remember who he owes his job to. The defining issue for the embattled education chief’s tenure is the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA). Considered a scourge of childhood, it goes against the grain of enlightened educational practices. Hong Kong education chief softens stance on resuming TSA Amid an alarming rise in suicides among stressed-out schoolchildren, there has been an outcry... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2054163/hong-kong-must-not-revive-detested-tsa-exam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2054163/hong-kong-must-not-revive-detested-tsa-exam?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Dec 2016 06:00:30 +0000 There are some things in Hong Kong I will never understand. Corporate behaviour is one of them. Another is government indifference or connivance at unsavoury business practices that impinge on our livelihood. Consider the case of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s proud flag carrier. It requires its cabin crew to retire at the youngish age of 55. Conveniently, in this city, age discrimination is not an offence in law. Since most cabin crew members are female, Cathay’s practice is teetering close to sex... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2047944/dont-force-cathay-pacific-cabin-crew-retire-55?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2047944/dont-force-cathay-pacific-cabin-crew-retire-55?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Nov 2016 09:33:30 +0000 This school term, teachers have been handed a radioactive subject: talk of independence. Caught in a double bind, they are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. The choice is between being accused of condoning illegal behaviour or being condemned for suppressing freedom of speech. I could have said “I told you so” when “independence” talk reared its ugly head. The seed was planted by the Education Bureau when it marginalised the teaching of history, and replaced it with the ill-conceived... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2014894/blame-hong-kongs-failed-education-reform-independence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2014894/blame-hong-kongs-failed-education-reform-independence?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Sep 2016 07:40:27 +0000 As an Olympic Games couch potato, I am bitterly disappointed, once again, with Hong Kong’s Cantonese TV coverage. In a word, it is an annoyance. While we talk grandiosely about being part of the Olympic movement, the truth is that when it comes to sports, this city has a long way to go, journalistically at least, if not athletically. Every four years, we are treated to another 16-days’ worth of nauseating amateurism in Games coverage, filled with non-stop chatter from people who know little... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2004505/cantonese-tv-coverage-olympics-yet-another-display-ill?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2004505/cantonese-tv-coverage-olympics-yet-another-display-ill?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Aug 2016 04:30:15 +0000 The medical cartel is a misbegotten creature of the SAR government. Before the handover, local doctors were politically docile and professionally unselfish. Since then, the Medical Council has turned itself into a doctors’ super-union. By tightly controlling the intake of foreign-trained doctors, it has created a severe shortage of physicians. And, in one outrageous case, it took nine years to investigate a fatal medical mishap, an eternity for a grieving family. The patients are up in arms. But... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1986182/hong-kong-ailing-attack-selfish-doctors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1986182/hong-kong-ailing-attack-selfish-doctors?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Jul 2016 03:19:12 +0000 There is a woman out there that the government does not see. Middle-aged, widowed and unskilled, she has been fighting for the past 18 months to inherit the shoeshine licence of her deceased husband whom she once assisted. With this licence, she could earn up to HK$8,000 a month to feed herself and her injured son. But the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department says no. It has an iron rule that shoeshine licences cannot be inherited or transferred. It never ceases to amaze me what... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1963821/hong-kong-should-relax-its-rules-hawker-licences-help-poor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1963821/hong-kong-should-relax-its-rules-hawker-licences-help-poor?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jun 2016 04:01:07 +0000 The bitter wrangle over the Territory-wide System Assessment has degenerated into a silly question of whose side you are on: for or against the government. Because it is so fragile and nervous, local politics now follows this inescapable pattern. There is no middle ground. READ MORE: Reviled standard school test is a scapegoat for Hong Kong’s flawed education system Pro-establishment legislators and their political bedfellows rally behind the beleaguered education chief to defend the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1889822/mistakes-and-misreadings-have-put-hong-kongs-tsa-dispute?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1889822/mistakes-and-misreadings-have-put-hong-kongs-tsa-dispute?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Dec 2015 03:46:49 +0000 Bill Gates is right when he says that, “Giving money away is easy. Giving money away effectively is not”. In Hong Kong, educational philanthropy is blooming; every tycoon worth the epithet has an education foundation to his name. Peter Woo Kwong-ching of Wharf (Holdings), for instance, is pumping up to HK$300 million via his Project WeCan into 50 at-risk schools over six years, backed by 1,250 volunteers and the financial muscle of other civic-minded corporations. And yet, for all the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1882526/wiser-use-charity-dollars-can-give-hong-kongs-poorer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1882526/wiser-use-charity-dollars-can-give-hong-kongs-poorer?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Nov 2015 04:16:44 +0000 For ages, traditional Chinese medicine has lived in the shadows as alternative medicine. But overnight, with a Chinese medicine researcher anointed as this year's Nobel co-laureate for medicine, it has acquired a halo of legitimacy. In Hong Kong, however, Chinese medicine seems about to enter the dark ages. Designated as a new pillar industry, it never got anything except governmental lip service. After six years of inaction under Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the government is now set to impose tough... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1871439/expired-hong-kong-governments-ideas-about-chinese-medicine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1871439/expired-hong-kong-governments-ideas-about-chinese-medicine?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Oct 2015 04:45:15 +0000 Click here to read this article in Chinese. We should not measure China's progress by gross domestic product alone. President Xi Jinping's meticulously planned state visit to the US produced few surprises, but nobody was prepared for this: China's first lady Peng Liyuan making a moving speech to the world as a special envoy for Unesco's initiative on the education of girls and women. READ MORE: China's first lady Peng Liyuan impresses with fluent English speech at United Nations It is astounding... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1863450/peng-liyuans-fluent-english-should-open-our-eyes-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1863450/peng-liyuans-fluent-english-should-open-our-eyes-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Oct 2015 04:30:15 +0000 By any standards, it was the ugliest scene in local higher education history. One council member of the University of Hong Kong was down on the floor, clutching his knee in pain. Another, female and helpless, was hemmed in and hassled in the car park by militant students, and had to be rescued by an ambulance - all this mayhem in the name of protecting the university's procedural integrity over the appointment of its pro-vice-chancellor. They say they are fighting for the soul of the university,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1846099/hku-appointment-row-proxy-war-waged-not-universitys-benefit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1846099/hku-appointment-row-proxy-war-waged-not-universitys-benefit?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Aug 2015 07:45:18 +0000 While Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has promised to turn his attention to livelihood issues, he doesn’t seem to be including education in this, even though it defines the lives of countless children, teachers and parents. Sitting behind their desks, bureaucrats don’t see the misery their schemes have dispensed. Take the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA), for instance. Imposed on Primary Three  and Six  children, plus Form Three  at the secondary level, it is supposed to “facilitate... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1829403/hong-kongs-objective-student-evaluations-are-blight-need-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1829403/hong-kongs-objective-student-evaluations-are-blight-need-be?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Jun 2015 06:26:10 +0000 Some of us recoil in disgust at local tutorial centres drilling toddlers for admission to kindergartens. Such questions are, of course, nothing new in educational institutions, even at the elite UK universities Oxford and Cambridge. But there is a world of difference. Theirs are questions you can't drill for. To gain an Oxbridge education, you must first run the gauntlet of their dizzyingly difficult admissions questions. Would, for example, any university in Asia ask applicants to "describe a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1817026/top-universities-only-original-thinkers-need-apply?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1817026/top-universities-only-original-thinkers-need-apply?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jun 2015 16:11:03 +0000 A government budget is a political document. This is true in any year. After last autumn's mayhem in the streets, this is even more so now. Preaching the gospel of prudence won't cut it in these traumatic times. Hong Kong society is deeply divided along economic fault lines. Accordingly to the International Monetary Fund, extreme inequality is not just immoral; it retards the economy. How else do you explain our robust employment figures against a snail-paced 2 per cent gross domestic product... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1722325/john-tsang-should-create-legacy-fairer-hong-kong-society?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1722325/john-tsang-should-create-legacy-fairer-hong-kong-society?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Feb 2015 07:11:55 +0000 There is a joke going around local university campuses. A mainland academic asked his Hong Kong counterpart: " Why do you have a council chairman when you already have a president?" The local wag replied: "Our council chairman is like your party secretary." The mainland visitor nodded knowingly. True or false, this outsized role of the chairman of the university, or indeed of any quasi-public organisation, such as the Airport Authority or the stock exchange, has rarely, if ever, come under the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1673029/whos-watching-government-appointees-hong-kongs-quasi-public?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1673029/whos-watching-government-appointees-hong-kongs-quasi-public?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jan 2015 19:01:09 +0000 By now, popular support for the Occupy Movement has melted away. After two noisy months, its chokepoints have exacted a painful price on the retail and transport sectors. The tide is turning. When it began, some cab drivers would ferry passengers to the occupied areas for free - until the occupation began to eat into their livelihood. Tactically, the government's approach of waiting it out has worked. Student organisers, seeing the writing on the wall, have resorted to increasingly desperate... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1658270/occupy-protests-may-be-ending-grievances-wont-go-away?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1658270/occupy-protests-may-be-ending-grievances-wont-go-away?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Dec 2014 02:21:37 +0000 Former chief secretary Sir David Akers-Jones intends to embark on an ambitious project: to save tens of thousands of teenagers attending the so-called "Band 3" schools from sliding into a zombie-like existence. He was provoked into action by the plight of his driver's daughter. Sir David discovered to his dismay that after 12 years of schooling, the teenager couldn't say or write a three-word sentence in English to introduce herself. She couldn't get a job as a shop assistant that called for... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1581131/teach-english-real-world-hong-kongs-struggling-students?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1581131/teach-english-real-world-hong-kongs-struggling-students?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Aug 2014 06:45:30 +0000 For another crop of local secondary school graduates, the day of reckoning has finally arrived. This year, results of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams show numbers that call for thoughtful interpretation. Three sets of figures stand out. First, more students failed to attain the minimum level in Chinese language required for university admission. Second, a lower percentage of students passed the liberal studies subject. Third, more students did better in English... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1554807/behind-exam-results-system-thats-driving-students-defection?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1554807/behind-exam-results-system-thats-driving-students-defection?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Jul 2014 09:00:00 +0000 The medical profession's Hippocratic oath has a simple injunction: "Do no harm." At the absolute minimum, the teaching profession ought to have a similar credo. But harm is a way of life across our state schools. Last month, I ventured onto ground zero of a looming education calamity: a "Band 3 school". What I saw as a volunteer English teacher in a Form Five after-school class left me cursing the creators of this wretched system. It immediately became clear that little learning takes place... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1541550/stigmatising-students-not-way-help-them-learn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1541550/stigmatising-students-not-way-help-them-learn?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Jun 2014 04:45:45 +0000 Legendary sociobiologist E. O. Wilson has a provocative quote that captures the Hong Kong situation beautifully. He said: "Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals." Our selfish rich are getting filthy rich, while we lag behind Singapore in education, housing and technology. Even in per capita gross domestic product, the Lion City has overtaken selfish Hong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1524479/schools-sinking-under-rent-pressure-need-government-help-stay-afloat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1524479/schools-sinking-under-rent-pressure-need-government-help-stay-afloat?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Jun 2014 11:15:30 +0000 The native-speaking English teacher (NET) scheme has been a part of our local public school system for the past 15 years. It has grown into a HK$710 million, 900-strong operation, complete with its own mini-bureaucracy. Despite the trappings of a fully fledged scheme, it has within it pockets of immaturity. Periodically, there are rumblings of complaint from both sides. Sweep these differences under the rug, and the programme may never live up to its promise. The scheme was born of a desire to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1507455/hong-kongs-native-speaking-english-teacher-scheme-needs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1507455/hong-kongs-native-speaking-english-teacher-scheme-needs?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 May 2014 19:00:45 +0000 Let me make a simple prediction: Hong Kong will live with its chronic shortage of international school places for as long as we maintain our illogical thinking. Consider this: in Singapore, international schools are off-limits to locals. Exceptions are made only for children returning from overseas. As a result, locals account for only 4 per cent of overall international enrolment. Here, international schools are permitted a local intake of 30 per cent and as much as 50 per cent for Harrow. Some... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1461864/end-red-carpet-treatment-hong-kong-international-schools?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1461864/end-red-carpet-treatment-hong-kong-international-schools?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:27:06 +0000 Everywhere else, the consumer is king. Here, he is more like a sucker with little to fall back on except the principle of "buyer beware", thanks to the "little government, big market" philosophy much favoured by the Donald Tsang Yam-kuen administration. The mainland may have toxic products but at least it provides fair pay-TV services. Here, the market is dominated by i-Cable and Now TV, with 1.09 million and 1.16 million subscribers respectively. They are locked in a battle for the local couch... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1433715/pay-tv-subscribers-need-champion-their-consumer-rights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1433715/pay-tv-subscribers-need-champion-their-consumer-rights?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:52:58 +0000 The Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (English) is now entering its 13th year. But, despite a revision in 2007, little has changed. The exams were set up in answer to an outcry from the business and education communities over the fast-falling standards of English in this world city. They carry the weighty mission of raising the standards of English by tightening the entry into the teaching profession. Designed by specialists, the tests are not subject to scrutiny for their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1414933/restructure-english-tests-hong-kong-teachers-raise-language?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1414933/restructure-english-tests-hong-kong-teachers-raise-language?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Jan 2014 13:15:00 +0000 Few expected any surprises from the chief executive's second policy address. In fact, many had no expectations of any kind; a Chinese University survey showed that as many as 45 per cent of people polled were in that category. But, given the year of disquiet we have been through, there was a sense of urgency about this year's unveiling of Leung Chun-ying's plan of action for Hong Kong. Leung has been vilified in some quarters, unfairly in my view. Compared with his predecessor, who was known for... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1406250/cy-leungs-policy-address-delivers-goods-most-departments?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1406250/cy-leungs-policy-address-delivers-goods-most-departments?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:45:45 +0000 People fret and fuss over how we will choose our next leader. I worry about who will serve and support him or her. Policy officials and mandarins have a huge hidden impact on our lives. Hong Kong's "lost decade", a period of strategic shrinkage, has seen the disappearance of a fair society. Strategically adrift, our officials lurch from crisis to crisis, often overtaken by events. They are at least 10 years behind in meeting our chronic challenges. Under the last administration, the problems... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1397464/hong-kongs-privileged-public-servants-need-find-some-heart?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1397464/hong-kongs-privileged-public-servants-need-find-some-heart?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Jan 2014 21:15:45 +0000 Compared to the infamous barrage of slaps delivered by a Hong Kong girl to her kneeling and snivelling boyfriend, the slap administered by the government to Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV) is louder and more hurtful. Even to idle bystanders, this is a dark day for Hong Kong, another nail in the coffin of our supposedly free economy. It is ironic that Ricky Wong Wai-kay, founder of HKTV (formerly City Telecom), was the first to be invited by the government to submit an application for a TV... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1334630/tv-licence-rebuff-raises-questions-political-bias?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1334630/tv-licence-rebuff-raises-questions-political-bias?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Oct 2013 12:15:00 +0000 A new school year is here, and so is an old problem. To put it bluntly, Hong Kong sucks at English. Everyone laments this, but no one is doing anything about it. So, where should we begin? At the source: teacher training. All education reform lives or dies at the point of delivery. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington school system, is right when she says that at the heart of any quality education is a good teacher. But, in Hong Kong, we have been turning out teachers who are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1310379/teacher-training-key-improving-hong-kongs-english-language?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1310379/teacher-training-key-improving-hong-kongs-english-language?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 At first blush, the dockworkers' strike is of no concern to those of us who are card-carrying members of the coffee-drinking, French-movie-watching middle class. But this conflict is a tragic parable of a larger-than-life struggle that reflects what kind of society we have become. Here is how ridiculous the situation is. These workers - whose salaries have stood still since 2003 while prices rise year by year - are fighting for a 20 per cent increase, to bring their pay back to pre-handover... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1216822/give-dockworkers-decent-living-wage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1216822/give-dockworkers-decent-living-wage?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Once upon a time, Hong Kong was more than a city. It is an idea, beloved by all who believe in a fair existential struggle. Hard work used to beget honest reward. Now, this fabled town of bootstrap optimism resembles a dog-eat-dog compound. We have become a pear-shaped society, with a swollen lower class and a shrinking middle class, the former trapped by impotent rage and the latter resigned to their fate in which the Hong Kong dream is receding from their reach. Next Wednesday, the financial... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1154056/budget-must-watch-out-hong-kongs-middle-class?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1154056/budget-must-watch-out-hong-kongs-middle-class?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It has been a toe-curling first 100 days for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. In fact, he may be the first modern government leader to be denied a political honeymoon. It is really not his fault. He has been handed a poisoned chalice by his do-nothing predecessor. From what I can see, Leung is a sincere activist leader who is anxious to do the best for us. His has been the most responsive administration since the handover. Just look at his actions on parallel traders and pregnant... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1055978/housing-leungs-battle-fight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1055978/housing-leungs-battle-fight?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 When the great Canadian short story writer Alice Munro was asked what makes her happy, she gave this simple reply: "It's being interested." By this definition, many of our students, bored silly in school, are an unhappy lot. The business of education is engagement. At its best, education is character-forming and transforming. Our schools, alas, exist to drill students for exams. Engaging young hearts and minds is an afterthought, if that. We are moving mountains to reform our education.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1017204/stop-boring-our-children-school?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1017204/stop-boring-our-children-school?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000