Li Jiachao, the only candidate for the chief executive election, issued four policy outlines last week, which are to strengthen the government's governance capacity and unite to relieve the people's difficulties; streamline procedures to provide more places to live; comprehensively enhance competitiveness and create sustainable development space; As well as building a caring and inclusive society together, increasing the opportunities for the upper class of young people.
After the implementation of the "Hong Kong National Security Law" and the revision of the electoral system, Hong Kong has gone from chaos to governance, and is facing a new stage of transition from governance to prosperity. Therefore, a political platform that focuses on reforming governance, promoting the economy and improving people's livelihoods , which undoubtedly meets the current needs of Hong Kong.
However, reforms must come thoroughly and move forward in big strides.
If the reforms were to take action and stay on the policy thinking of "speeding up, improving efficiency, and increasing volume", without disturbing the structure of Hong Kong's interests, and without touching on the deep-seated structural contradictions, the new government would certainly not be able to be like Li Jiachao in the Q&A club. Implement good governance and good governance like words, and get everyone to agree that the new system will deliver results.
We do not know whether the new chief executive can also open a new chapter for Hong Kong, but it is definitely a critical moment for reform to see its true chapters.
Chief executive candidate Li Jiachao announced his election platform on April 29.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
The political platform sees only small steps but not the fundamentals of reform
Li Jiachao's 32-page political platform document put forward a total of more than 80 policies, and spent one of the four outlines on Hong Kong's land and housing issues. He advocated that the goal of shortening the housing construction process should be to improve the "efficiency" of the government in finding land and building houses to solve the problem. Citizens are anxious.
The idea of "speeding up, improving efficiency, and increasing volume" may sound new at first, but didn't Carrie Lam also proposed in her 2017 election platform that government departments must increase land supply and speed up the approval of land development?
Private property prices and public housing waiting times have hit record highs, proving that efficiency-enhancing prescriptions are unlikely to cure Hong Kong's housing problems.
The patient is still having a high fever, which has only dropped slightly from 40 degrees to 39 degrees.
Speeding up the supply of land and housing can theoretically help to stabilize property prices, but the housing predicament in Hong Kong stems from the issue of lack of dominance, and many land available for development are still in the hands of private real estate developers.
Coupled with the fact that the vacancy tax on first-hand properties has been "taken away", real estate developers can strategically control the market supply and sell them at a price.
However, Li Jiachao only stated that he would "appropriately cite" the Land Resumption Ordinance and stressed the need to "make good use of market forces to promote the participation of private land stakeholders in development." He also said that stabilizing property prices is best for society, and did not respond to the vacancy tax. question.
We can't help worrying about whether the next government will be able to solve the problem of falling dominance of housing. Even if it promises to increase speed, efficiency, and volume, it will only alleviate rather than solve the problem.
Taking the social and youth policies in the four major political platforms as an example, Li Jiachao intends to combine the ordinary and high-rate Old Age Living Allowances, adopt looser qualification examination restrictions, and propose a "pilot plan to solve intergenerational poverty", which will be undertaken by entrepreneurs or social talents. Mentor, helping young people affected by intergenerational poverty to equip themselves.
However, the root cause of Hong Kong's poverty problem is the failure of the distribution mechanism. After the economic restructuring and de-industrialization, a large number of laborers are unable to engage in high-value-added and high-return jobs, and their interests are heavily concentrated in the hands of a small number of people.
If the economic structure does not change, it will still rely on the "trickle-down effect" of the market mechanism, and any poverty alleviation, youth, and retirement security policies will only be minor repairs.
Even in the scope of the second distribution, this platform has not seen radical and comprehensive reforms. For example, it has not actively responded to the need for universal retirement protection and supported a fairer and juster social system with tax reform.
Xiao Gui and Cao Sui’s proposition may reflect the new government’s thinking that it is still inseparable from a big market and a small government, and that citizens are responsible for their own responsibility.
The housing problem at the grassroots level in Hong Kong needs to be solved urgently.
(file picture)
The way to govern is to solve problems at the source
Li Jiachao proposed that government should "goal with results", but in order to achieve results, those who govern Hong Kong must first conduct in-depth studies and judgments on Hong Kong's economic and social problems to find the root causes of the problems.
Otherwise, Hong Kong will only continue to waste time even if it is to "increase speed, efficiency, and volume".
Hundreds of thousands of citizens will continue to huddle in sub-divided or caged houses for the next five years. The elderly will still have to scavenge waste on the street corners of the busy city to make a living. The wage earners whose rights and interests are not guaranteed can still only hope for the mercy of their employers.
The sharp contradiction between vested interests and vulnerable groups will eventually continue to breed restlessness and anxiety, becoming a time bomb for the next crisis.
Looking at the past and present, the key to the success or failure of reform is whether to grasp the essence of the problem, and then prescribe the right medicine.
The Hundred Days Reform at the end of the Qing Dynasty was only a short-lived event because it tried to cure the symptoms rather than the root causes, and the Qing government would inevitably become history.
When it comes to reform, Li Jiachao, who is from the police force, believes that Xue Jifu will not be unfamiliar.
The police commissioner, who took office in 1969, faced the corruption problem of Chinese detectives.
At that time, the detectives colluded with gang forces to form a huge and stubborn network. It was no longer necessary to attack individual detectives such as Lu Le and Han Sen to solve the problem.
Among Xue Jifu's several reform measures, the reorganization arrangements such as the incorporation of the Criminal Investigation Department, the abolition of the position of chief inspector, and the addition of a police chief are particularly important, which have successfully broken the intertwined power network of the Criminal Investigation Department.
In fact, Li Jiachao should know better than many people about the importance of curing the root cause.
Take the smuggling issue as an example, if there is no improvement after repeated crackdowns and interceptions, the police will naturally analyze the causes and loopholes of criminal activities from a more structural perspective, and try to solve the problem at the source.
The way of public order is like this, and the way of governance is much the same.
Li Jiachao visited residents of subdivided housing on April 24.
(Li Jiachao Facebook)
Opening a new chapter for Hong Kong requires words and actions
Of course, reform is never easy.
Wang Anshi of the Northern Song Dynasty faced the obstruction of the old conservative party when he implemented the reform, which was one of the reasons for its failure.
China's reform and opening up was once considered by some people to be too large, and it was up to Deng Xiaoping to make the final decision to resist conservative pressure.
However, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, has pointed out that Hong Kong administrators must "effectively solve prominent problems such as housing, employment, medical care, and the disparity between the rich and the poor", and "think about the people's thoughts, worry about the people's urgency, and solve the people's difficulties. Always stick to the grassroots and be grounded.” There should no longer be any suspense in Hong Kong’s reform needs.
In addition, Li Jiachao is competing for the position of chief executive without any opponents. The central government's "blessing" is obvious to all, which should be enough to let him put aside his concerns and promote a thorough reform.
Not surprisingly, the establishment party gave a round of applause after Li Jiachao announced his election platform.
DAB Legislator Lau Kwok-hsun said that the goal proposed by Li Jiachao "can make people who are waiting for public housing see hope and can go upstairs faster." Well-being is the goal," and the Liberal Party also praised its proposition as "both directional and forward-looking".
Members of the Legislative Council, as members of a broad range of people who govern Hong Kong, are also so supportive of this policy platform, which has not touched on structural issues and is partly based on compliance. How can they spur the government to push the reform to go deeper and further in the next five years?
If you think that solving the problem is as simple as reforming the process, it is obviously a lack of awareness of the level of unfair structure in Hong Kong.
Even if we can see Li Jiachao's positive attitude, even if this political platform is widely approved by the establishment, everyone must seek truth from facts. At least we have not yet seen the correct way to solve the problem. What we need now is definitely not applause.
When discussing the housing issue, Li Jiachao said, "There are already a lot of proposals, and we can continue to discuss them, but we must act on our words."
However, the attitude of sitting on the table and acting on it should also be used in his campaign slogan of "open a new chapter for Hong Kong together".
If Li Jiachao really wants to open a new chapter for Hong Kong, make Hong Kong a safe place for the remaining citizens, and even attract immigrants to "come back to build Hong Kong together and embrace Hong Kong together", his "New Chapter" slogan must be spoken. set off.
Only by taking big steps to reform and carrying out thorough reforms involving structural contradictions can Hong Kong's problems be rooted out and "opening a new chapter" truly realized.
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