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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2021-07-05 16:00
Last update date: 2021-07-05 16:04
With the passing of July 1, it means that Chief Executive Carrie Lam has entered the final year of office.
But after returning to Lam Cheng's performance in the past four years, we can see that she has failed to improve social life, and it seems that she will leave a mess for her successor-whether she is re-elected or a new person is elected.
Looking at the policies of the Lam Cheng administration in the economic and labor market in the past four years, we can see that the government is more pro-market and far from the grassroots.
For example, Lam Cheng put forward the "New Taxation Direction" in his political platform, hoping to reduce the tax burden for enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups. The proposal will soon be implemented on April 1, 2018.
This measure is conducive to the market and the middle class. It stipulates that the corporate profits tax is divided into two levels, the first level is the first 2 million yuan of profits of the enterprise, and the profits tax rate has been greatly reduced from the current 16.5% to 8.25%.
The platform for Carrie Lam's election for Chief Executive in 2017 was "We Connect".
(Screenshot of the political platform)
Pro-market and far from the grassroots
However, in terms of labor rights, Lam Cheng mentioned in his election platform that he would submit a report based on the "Standard Working Hours Committee" to "find out the direction of the working hours policy suitable for Hong Kong's social and economic conditions." However, no progress has been made so far. Under the epidemic, tragedies of sudden deaths at the grassroots level working overtime for their livelihoods occurred one after another.
As for the cancellation of the MPF hedging issue, although a timetable has been drawn up, relative to the rapid meeting of corporate profits tax, the cancellation of the MPF hedging will not be implemented until 2025 at the earliest.
At the same time, on the issue of land and housing, it can also be seen that although Lam Cheng has engaged in a vigorous land debate, it seems that he has to search for public opinion and make drastic decisions, but in the end he dared not attack the vested interest groups. Fanling Golf Course only dared. A small portion was recovered, and the vacancy tax was also abolished.
Under such circumstances, during the four years of Carrie Lam’s administration, the property price-to-income ratio, the waiting period for public housing, and the homeownership burden index have risen steadily. The housing problem has become more severe for both the middle class and the grassroots.
On July 1, 2020, the Hong Kong National Security Law was officially implemented in Hong Kong. Chief Executive Carrie Lam, Secretary of Justice Zheng Ruohua and Secretary for Security Li Jiachao held a press conference to explain.
(Photo by Gao Zhongming)
Emphasize politics and despise people's livelihood
Looking at Lam Cheng's political achievements in the past four years from another level, it is not difficult to find that Lam Cheng's political accomplishment is higher than that of the people's livelihood.
After the anti-amendment turmoil in 2019, the Lam Cheng government cooperated with the central authorities in promulgating the "Hong Kong National Security Law" and implementing amendments to the electoral system. Many political parties and non-governmental organizations have been disbanded. The improvement of people's livelihood is lacklustre.
At the medical level, although Carrie Lam mentioned "research on optimizing the referral procedure to prevent patients from delaying treatment due to overlapping referrals" and "through cross-sectoral, cross-medical professional and public-private cooperation, to consolidate and improve the overall "Medical and health services", but the referral process is still a stumbling block to the increase in medical costs. Many private hospitals that have cooperative plans with the government, such as Gangyi, have finally found it difficult to achieve the targets of the government's plan.
As for the continued implementation of the "Community Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly" and the "Residential Residential Care Service Voucher Pilot Project" mentioned during the election, it is confirmed that such schemes only promote the elderly without supervision and other support. To the private market where the quality is uneven and there is no guarantee for the elderly.
Lam Cheng’s campaign slogan was "We connect together." She mentioned that the first task is to "unify the society, connect with the general public, develop the economy, improve people's livelihood, promote democracy, and rekindle hope for the next generation."
However, under Lin Zheng's rule that he emphasizes the market and neglects the grassroots, and the political completion is higher than the people's livelihood, the SAR government's equality of public opinion has declined steadily, and social tears have become more and more serious.
Therefore, both Lam Cheng and the candidate for the next chief executive must reflect on the gains and losses of past administrations, so as to truly unite the society and walk with the people.
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