tim's experiment

One of the distressing things about the Leung administration is that listening to its admirers usually makes you even more suspicious than you were before.  Consider the piece by Tammy Tam in last Monday’s Post. Ms Tam was detailing the Leung camp’s response to questions about whether it was really a good idea to have Leung supporters parachuted into a variety of government-appointed positions.

Ms Tam’s view of this seems rather confused. Mr Leung, she conceded, was seen as having a weak cabinet. Now he was determined to place allies and aides in his inner circle. No complaints so far. Mr Leung has appointed more policy secretaries, sidekicks, consultants and PR flacks than any of his predecessors. But that is his right. Policy secretaries and their hangers-on are there to implement the CE’s policies. But Ms Tam was not talking about the inner circle in this sense at all. The posts she had in mind were the chairperson ships of the Airport Authority, the Trade Development Council, the Independent Police Complaints Council and the body which runs Science and Technology Parks. This is not the inner circle of Hong Kong public administration by any means. One can perhaps make a case for a political figure running the airport aurhority. But the Police Complaints Council?

I am not at all happy with the idea that these people are “Leung fans”. Mr Leung is in the unfortunate position of Henry VIII in “A Man for all Seasons”, who observes that “There are those like Norfolk who follow me because I wear the crown, and there are those like Master Cromwell who follow me because they are jackals with sharp teeth and I am their lion, and there is a mass that follows me because it follows anything that moves”. Kings do not have fans or friends. Mr Leung’s misfortune is that he has been the darling of the Liaison Office since before it was the Liaison Office. He is a walking conduit to the advantages that being in the favour of our colonial masters can bring. If seeking a friend he would have to find someone who was uninterested in money or power, but prepared to get along with someone who thought of little else. It’s a tall order. Still, some of his appointments may turn out well. Let us hope so. I had some misgivings about Ms Tam’s idea that this process of “appointing people he can trust” was a way to “get things done”.

Oh yes? Looking at the recent history of the MTR and the prime collection of compliant mediocrities that the government has appointed to its board, I fear that this may be a way of not getting things done. Some of these jobs do require more extensive talents than the ability to say yes. Anyway, intelligent people can disagree about these matters.

Where it seemed to me Ms Tam’s choice of words wandered in a lamentable direction was in her discussion of Mr Jack So Chak-kwong, who is the chairman of the Trade Development Council but is apparently to swap jobs with the newly appointed chairman of the Airport Authority next May. There was no mention of the possibility that this curious arrangement might result in both organisations being effectively paralysed for a year. We were, though, invited to note that Mr So was a nominator of Henry Tang in the Chief Executive election. This really does not call for any comment or explanation. Hong Kong dos not have two warring parties. The difference between the two candidates in political terms was barely visible, leaving the election to be decided by their levels of success in concealing illegal structures. There is no reason why supporters of Mr Tang in the election should not take office under Mr Leung, just as no doubt supporters of Mr Leung would have been willing to serve under Mr Tang. Ms Tam, however, feels that “So took a stand for true democracy, putting aside the campaign bickering to support the current administration for the good of Hong Kong”. This is preposterous. Mr So is not taking a “stand for true democracy” by accepting the results of the Chief Executive selection process, which was specifically and successfully designed to be as undemocratic as possible. I do not know what Mr So thinks of democracy, but at a time when people are making genuine efforts to stand for it he can hardly claim to be a democratic standard-bearer because, having nominated one rich lay-about, he is prepared to work for another.