tim's experiment

A narrow escape last week. I read the story that Donald Tsang had accepted a ride on a luxury yacht from Macau, where he was on holiday, back to Hong Kong. This was within government guidelines for the acceptance of advantages, we were told, because Donald had paid (presumably the millionaire yacht owner) the price of a ferry ticket over the same route. This seemed to me to suggest that either the guidelines, or Donald’s ínterpretation of them, left a good deal to be desired. After all a ride on a luxury yacht is not just a way of getting from A to B. While the hapless victim of the jetfoil companies is virtually trapped in his seat, plied, if he is lucky, with over-priced junk food, the traveller by luxury yacht has a quite different experience. He can get up, walk around, talk to the driver, visit the engine room, bask on the deck or enjoy whatever culinary titbits his host’s generosity will stretch to. Mr Tsang admitted to consuming a “light breakfast”. So I was going to write that Mr Tsang should think again. It was as if he had been offered a flight back from Las Vegas in a private jet, and merely paid the Economy Class fare. Fortunately I was still mulling over this line of argument when some further news emerged about Mr Tsang’s travels. He had, apparently, accepted a ride back from Thailand in a private jet, and he had in fact paid the Economy fare.

Now look, folks, this will not do. If someone presents you with an antique bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne, you do not discharge your obligations to honest government by paying him the price of the cheapest available bottle of Park ‘n’ Shop plonk. You pay him the market price for that particular bottle or you are accepting an advantage. The market price of a private jet trip is not the same as the price of an Economy Class ticket over the same route. Chartering large yachts is extremely expensive – almost as expensive as chartering a plane – so the price of a trip on one from Macau to Hong Kong is not the same as the price of a jetfoil ticket either.

I realise that the whole thing is potentially a bit embarassing: someone offers you what appears to be a favour and you start waving bundles of money at him. But there is a solution to this problem. Mr Tsang should stop hobnobbing with mainland millionaires altogether. He cannot be so stupid as to suppose that his social cachet in these circles is due to his wit, wisdom or personal beauty. Having a Chief Executive on your boat or plane is good for business, even if the CE is a paragon of honesty. In mainland business circles official corruption is not just anticipated as a possibility, it is assumed.  Mr Tsang is supposed to be solving Hong Kong’s numerous problems, not researching for a post-retirement tome on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.