editorial
Written by: Hong Kong 01
2021-06-28 06:00
Last update date: 2021-06-28 06:00
Last Friday (June 25), the State Council decided to remove Zhang Jianzong, Chief Secretary for Administration, and appointed Li Jiachao, Director of the Security Bureau, to succeed him, and Chief of Police Deng Bingqiang to take over the post of Director of Security.
This is the fifth time there has been a major official personnel change since the current government took office. If the changes in the management team before and after the re-election of the same chief executive are not counted, the number of senior officials changed during Carrie Lam’s tenure has reached the highest number in previous years, involving 11 positions in total. And 18 officials.
When Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor met with the media, she bluntly stated that Zhang Jianzong was the same as last year's departure of the four bureau chiefs Luo Zhiguang, Liu Jianghua, Liu Yixiang, and Yang Weixiong, "there is no sense of accountability," but she also emphasized that the SAR government is still promoting the "accountability of political officials." The Chief Secretary for Administration, Tang Yingnian, who had a businessman background in the past, is now overtaken by the Li family, who is a police background, because "under the political accountability system, the original intention is to use people on their own merits, and they don’t care about this talented person." What background do people come from, including whether they are inside or outside the government."
This kind of statement inevitably makes people wonder. Where has the "accountability" in the accountability system for principal officials go?
Last Friday (June 25), the State Council decided to remove Zhang Jianzong, the Chief Secretary for Administration, and appointed Li Jiachao, the Secretary of the Security Bureau, to succeed him.
(Information Picture/Photographed by Zhang Haowei)
Just before this personnel change, last Wednesday (June 23), the Legislative Council meeting just passed the non-binding motion "Reform the Accountability System for Principal Officials" proposed by the Chairman of the DAB, Li Huiqiong, urging the Hong Kong government to "respond to the latest situation." Actively seek changes and review the accountability system for principal officials to improve governance so as to resolve deep-seated social conflicts and better promote the development of Hong Kong."
The first Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, introduced the accountability system for principal officials in 2002. At that time, the Hong Kong government submitted a document to the Legislative Council that clearly stated that "Principal officials... shall be accountable to the Chief Executive for the success or failure of matters within their respective scopes, and shall be responsible for this. Take full responsibility, and even step down when serious mistakes occur in matters within his scope of responsibility." However, since the resignation of the then Director of the Development Bureau, Mai Qiguang in July 2012, on suspicion of violating the "Prevention of Bribery Ordinance", no major officials have voluntarily stepped down. .
In addition, the "Code for Officials in the Political Appointment System" stipulates that the responsibilities of principal officials include "do everything possible to promote the interests of the government" and "be accountable to the Chief Executive for the success or failure of policies." The Chief Executive will decide to issue warnings, public condemnations, Appropriate punishments such as suspension or removal, but everyone knows that these punishments have never happened.
When Lin Zhengyue-e met with the media, she bluntly stated that Zhang Jianzong was the same as last year's departure of the four directors Luo Zhiguang, Liu Jianghua, Liu Yixiang, and Yang Weixiong, "there is no sense of accountability."
(Profile picture)
The political accountability system is in vain
Take a look at the outgoing Chief Secretary for Administration Zhang Jianzong. His most familiar "achievement" in recent years is that he has written a total of 230 blogs non-stop every week, and his parting comments continue to emphasize that "there is no sick leave at all," I have never let go of a big holiday, and I have never faced up to the criticisms of "inaction" or even "vegetarian meal".
According to the results of a telephone survey conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the average score given to Zhang Jianzong by the public has dropped from 52.3 when he took office to 28.6 in the month since then. The reduction in scores is the largest among the three directors. .
Such a principal official whose performance is absolutely unsatisfactory, why hasn't he been punished earlier in accordance with the principal official accountability system and will be able to retreat after more than four years?
At this time six years ago, President Xi Jinping emphasized in the 24th collective study on strengthening anti-corruption laws and regulations at the Politburo of the Central Committee: “We must improve the accountability mechanism, insist that accountability must be accounted for, and accountability must be strict. Supervision and inspection, target assessment, and accountability are organically combined to form a powerful driving force for the implementation of laws and regulations. The content, objects, matters, subjects, procedures, and methods of accountability must be institutionalized and procedural. Accountability must be both correct and procedural. It is necessary to ask the specific person." Hong Kong's so-called "main official accountability system", but it fails to combine "responsibility" and "asked to the specific person." All mistakes are governed in name. The team is collectively responsible, and the actual result is that no specific officials have ever been "accountable."
Carrie Lam announced the appointment of senior government personnel.
(Profile picture / Photo by Liang Pengwei)
The governance team is full of bureaucracy
Under the virtual accountability system, most members of the SAR government’s governance team are stubborn and perfunctory. As for the civil servants led by this group of high-ranking officials, there is no apparent “accountability” constraint. Many of the principal officials came from civil servants, including Zhang Jianzong and Carrie Lam.
During the debate on the "Reform the Accountability System for Principal Officials" in the Legislative Council, a number of legislators spoke in succession and criticized Hong Kong government officials for their lazy governance, lack of service spirit, ineffective policy promotion, ignorance of the demands of the people, excessive emphasis on procedures, and separate government departments. In a nutshell, there is structural bureaucracy and formalism, and the result will naturally be a serious drag on the execution efficiency of the entire government.
What is infuriating is that this series of problems that are widespread in the governance team of the SAR government has even been "certified" by an authoritative organization.
The Swiss International Management Development Institute published the latest "World Competitiveness Annual Report". The overall ranking of Hong Kong dropped from the first place in 2017 to the seventh place in 2021. The Hong Kong government still brags about maintaining its ranking in the "government efficiency" section. At the top of the list, it ignores that Xiezhong’s "bureaucratic" project ranking has fallen sharply from the third place four years ago to the sixteenth place.
In another “World Governance Index” launched by the World Bank, Hong Kong’s score on the “Government Effectiveness” indicator dropped from 1.91 in 2015 to 1.74 in 2019, and the ranking dropped from third in the world to 1.74 in 2019. The ninth place reflects that related phenomena have begun to attract international attention.
Affected by the bureaucracy of a group of high-ranking officials and civil servants, it is inevitable that Hong Kong has a lot of abuses.
For example, the shortage of land and housing supply is largely the result of the unusually slow progress of government departments in evaluating, approving, and promoting development projects. Another example is the "Streamlined Development Control Steering Group" of the Development Bureau, which is used to deal with bureaucratic issues. After it expanded its powers to other departments that did not belong to the bureau last year, it seemed to have led itself into the dilemma of having to go through the time-consuming consultation process with the other party. Another example is the delay in the local legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law. The matter has been reviewed for 18 years since the bill was withdrawn in 2003. Recently, Carrie Lam still said that because the current government only has about one year remaining in office, he can only do his best to make relevant preparations.
In the past year, the central government initiated the formulation of the "Hong Kong District National Security Law" and improved the arrangements for the electoral system. It was precisely to assist the SAR government to completely resolve these two problems that have been delayed for many years. The origin of its actions was In addition to the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Upholding and Improving the Socialist System with Chinese Characteristics, Promoting the Modernization of the National Governance System and Governance Capacity,” adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China last year, we have seen the content directly related to Hong Kong, It is also important to note that the document later mentioned that the national supervision system including "precise accountability" and the power operation restriction mechanism should be improved. These are actually tasks under the program of "promoting the national governance system" and "modernizing governance capabilities."
Li Jiachao, who has become the new Chief Secretary for Administration, has been controversial in his handling of the amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the enforcement of demonstrations. His net support in the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion polls fell to a low of -63.4% in October 2019. It is still the second lowest among all accountable directors.
(Photo by the Information Services Department)
The Hong Kong Government urgently needs to improve its governance capabilities
Whether it is the existence of the accountability system for principal officials in name only, or the bureaucratic style of the governance team, both are manifestations of the SAR government’s extreme lack of governance capabilities.
Moreover, in March this year, the National People’s Congress passed the "Decision on Improving the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Electoral System." Therefore, it is not difficult to expect that after the completion of the work of improving Hong Kong’s electoral system, the central government may soon begin to deal with the problem of poor governance capabilities of the Hong Kong government.
If officials intend to stay in the government to serve the public, they must recognize that they have the responsibility to promote good local governance and correct bureaucratic vices as soon as possible.
Li Jiachao, who has become the new Chief Secretary for Administration, has been controversial in his handling of the amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the enforcement of demonstrations. His net support in the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion polls fell to a low of -63.4% in October 2019. It is still the second lowest among all accountable bureau chiefs, which is certainly not ideal.
Needless to say, public opinion is only a momentary emotional response of the society, not a sufficient condition to guide governance, but political leaders themselves must be aware of the direct relationship between emotions and public opinion, and must not ignore that losing public support can make governance difficult; and must face public dissatisfaction. , Thoroughly solve the problems of public concern and reverse public opinion.
The post of Chief Secretary for Administration can be said to have no sense of existence in this government. Whether the newly appointed Chief Secretary can change such a bad situation may be the opportunity to reverse public opinion.
Hong Kong has been deeply torn apart. At the moment when the atmosphere of struggle is still fierce, Li Jiachao must abandon the ideological opposition. If he ever responded negatively to the criticism from the society, it is time to deeply reflect on what kind of civil servants Hong Kong needs and how effective it is to make up for the tearing. What is governance? Only by taking the resolution of the deep-seated structural problems of Hong Kong as the performance-oriented direction can we be truly accountable to the society and re-establish the important role of the Chief Secretary for Administration in the governance of the Hong Kong government.
The Chief Executive will be replaced soon. We hope that this change will bring some kind of stimulus to the SAR government, and it is truly gradually improving, implementing and expanding the accountability system.
"Hong Kong 01" has long pointed out that the focus of "accountability" is to assume responsibility and learn lessons. The form should not be limited to a single channel—hanging the crown. Only through diversified measures such as performance appraisal or reward and punishment mechanisms, the Hong Kong government The promotion and transfer of personnel at all levels, remuneration packages and their performance in governance are linked to rebuild an "accountability" thinking and culture, and eliminate all those who follow the rules and do not intend to perform their duties. Only in this way can they be expected to be motivated to be active and pragmatic. Effective governance will improve the local deteriorating social economy and people’s livelihood environment.
Please pay attention to the 271st issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly News published on June 28, 2021, which is available at major newsstands, OK convenience stores and Vango convenience stores.
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