[01 Weekly Editorial] Hong Kong has not renovated a page

The chief executive election on Sunday (May 8) ended without any suspense.

The only candidate, Li Jiachao, was successfully elected with 1,416 votes and officially became the chief executive-designate.

Everything seems to be developing according to the existing script. The establishment has almost all come out to support Li Jiachao. After winning the election, the chief executive, the "voting king", said that he would form a more responsible and team-spirited government to strengthen the execution efficiency. and governance capacity, prioritize housing issues after taking office, gain confidence with actions, and narrow differences with results.

Whether Hong Kong has turned a new page or is still continuing the old story remains to be proved by the actions of the new governance team in the future.

This is the first chief executive election after the central government revised Hong Kong's electoral system. It should have brought a new government with new thinking, strides forward to promote reform, implement good governance and good governance, not afraid to shake the structure of Hong Kong's vested interests, and strive to resolve deep-seated conflicts.

After Li Jiachao was elected, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office also praised him for facing the problem, prescribing the right medicine, and forging ahead with reforms.

However, judging from the words and deeds of the chief executive-designate and the establishment who fully supported him in this election campaign, it is still too early to say that Hong Kong has ushered in the dawn of reform.

On May 9, Li Jiachao was successfully elected with 1,416 votes and officially became the chief executive-designate.

(China News Agency)

Li Jiachao is the main responsible person for "patriots ruling Hong Kong", but neither his political platform nor his election manifesto seem to be mere slogans.

As for the special election committee and Legislative Council members who nominate and support him, they are selected by the central government's revised electoral system and are part of those who govern Hong Kong.

However, judging from the nominations made by Li Jiachao when he signed up for the election in the middle of last month, as many as 87 of the 90 Legislative Council members had chosen to support the platform before they saw it. Tian Beichen and New Thinking Di Zhiyuan did not give nomination votes.

Even the election committee member Tang Jiahua, who said it was inconvenient to comment, admitted that the situation was rare, and joked that there was "no choice" in this election.

Before the central government revised the electoral system, the establishment either only knew how to protect vested interests such as the business community, or they were submissive to the government and lacked their own ideas, and were even criticized by some as "royalists" and "loyal waste."

After the revision of the electoral system, the old and new establishment factions completely dominated the Legislative Council and even the political space of Hong Kong, but at first glance, they were only similar to the past and failed to play their due supervisory and policy-oriented roles.

Although it is said that Li Jiachao has been blessed by the central government, the pro-establishment faction, as a member of parliament and an electoral committee, should also faithfully perform its supervision duties and urge the new chief executive to formulate a political platform that meets the needs of Hong Kong's development and reform, rather than just support it.

Just as Leung Chun-ying, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, stressed at the campaign meeting for Li Jiachao's candidacy last Friday (6th) that we should understand the Basic Law's stipulation that the SAR government is responsible for the Legislative Council. The chief executive does not know what policy strategy he has, so how can he effectively perform his duties?

In the Legislative Council, the performance of the old and new establishments is equally worrying.

According to statistics, many newcomers from the establishment have a high absentee rate and few speeches.

The political quality may not be easily quantified by these figures, but in the more than four months of the new term of the Legislative Council, the establishment has also failed to effectively urge the government to introduce reforms.

For example, the budget that was read last Wednesday lacked the promise and blueprint for economic and social reforms as before.

Although some pro-establishment members raised questions in the previous Finance Committee review, and even criticized them for lacking long-term reform commitments, they were finally approved by almost unanimous votes without major revisions. opposed to sector funding.

What is even more absurd is that the society has been fighting for the abolition of MPF hedging for nearly ten years, and it is rare that the current-term government promises to do its best to pass it during its term of office.

You must know that the abolition of MPF hedging is already a very humble requirement in labor protection, and it is in the interests of the whole society.

However, some lawmakers only stand on the employer's point of view, claiming that once the hedging is cancelled, some employees will "fight for speculation", or they are worried that the epidemic will affect the business, and hope to delay the implementation.

In the past, the establishment often blamed the failure of reform policies on the "obstruction" of pro-democracy parliamentarians, but now the "obstructive" democrats are no longer in parliament, so why is it still impossible to implement reforms?

If politicians do not understand the structural problems of Hong Kong, how can they push the government to carry out reforms?

After being elected, Li Jiachao stated that he would use knowledge, experience and ability to select talents to join the governance team. If the establishment gets a half-official position, they will have greater responsibility and worry about the world, and speed up the pace of thorough reform.

Whether it is the old establishment or the new establishment after the new electoral system, they should actively monitor the government's reform process.

(Photo by Luo Junhao)

Politicians serve society as a whole

Once a politician sets foot on the political stage, they must understand that this is not just about "power" and prestige, nor just a job, but also a mission and responsibility.

Influenced by some narrow democratic concepts, some people have always believed that elected representatives only serve the voters of their own constituencies, which makes some of them think that they only serve specific groups or interest classes.

Just like members of the functional constituencies in Hong Kong, many people think that they are only representatives of the interests of the industry they belong to. Therefore, the representatives of the medical and health sector, natural medicine and medicine, are opposed to the introduction of foreign doctors; the representatives of the business sector only stand on the employer's point of view and oppose everything. Labor protection; the real estate and construction sectors only care about defending the interests of developers, regardless of the suffering of citizens living in subdivided housing.

Or, the members of the establishment party believe that they only serve the voters of the establishment party, and the members of the democratic party only serve the voters of the democratic party.

If the representatives only know that they have their own masters instead of sincerely thinking about the whole society, the so-called democratic system will eventually evolve into a wrestling field for different interest groups to fight against different parties. Not to mention that reform is difficult to implement, and even daily operations may be regarded as partisan disputes. tool.

In recent years, we have seen that American politics has been mired in partisan disputes, and reforms cannot be implemented. Part of the reason is not that the representatives have their own masters and only know to represent their own interest groups.

Back in Hong Kong, no matter whether the establishment or the pro-democracy faction, if they only know how to speak for their own interests and don’t know how to think about the overall situation of society, the result will be that even a trivial change like the removal of MPF hedging will take ten years. We are also more worried about how many years and generations of time will be wasted in Hong Kong before we can get the reforms we really need.

The central government's request to those who govern Hong Kong is not just about political loyalty, but more importantly, it is hoped that they should be able to handle people's livelihood affairs well, do practical things for the people, and promote reforms to resolve the deep-seated contradictions in Hong Kong.

(Associated Press)

Vigorously promote reform, do not waste time

For the next governance team and even the establishment faction, it is undoubtedly the central government that has the most high hopes.

Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, put forward "five good" and "five have" requirements to the members of "patriots governing Hong Kong" last year and this year respectively.

Perhaps because the attitude of the central officials is polite, it is easy to think that these requirements are not so serious or severe, and they can be fooled by their current performance.

But if they take these requirements seriously, it is not difficult to find that the current level is hardly qualified.

The "five good skills" refer to being good at fully and accurately implementing the "one country, two systems" policy, being good at solving various contradictions and problems facing Hong Kong's development, being good at doing practical things for the people, being good at uniting forces in all aspects, and being good at fulfilling duties.

From these five points, it can be seen that the central government's requirements for those who run Hong Kong are not only for political loyalty, but more importantly, they hope that they can handle people's livelihood affairs well, do practical things for the people, and promote reform to resolve the deep-seated contradictions in Hong Kong.

As for the "five possessions" of having a pattern, having feelings, having responsibility, having skills, and being effective, it is even more than the "five goodness", which specifically explains the qualities that politicians should have.

The so-called pattern, specifically for the establishment, means that they cannot only serve their own interest groups.

The so-called sentimental and responsible means that they have the ambition to make a living for the people and assume the responsibility of serving the public.

And having the ability and acting means that they can't just talk about the reform, they must have the ability and courage to implement the reform, and finally do practical things.

Therefore, whether it is the old establishment faction or the new establishment faction that emerged after the new electoral system, they should actively monitor the government's reform process.

Some of these issues have been mentioned by the central government for many years, and even repeated over and over again, such as eliminating subdivided housing, improving the inequitable distribution of economic outcomes, and implementing industrial reform and upgrading in Hong Kong.

If politicians continue to be as slow as ever, or even deliberately delay, they will only repeat the mistakes of the past two decades and waste precious years.

Then Hong Kong may not be too far from the next crisis.

Please pay attention to the 316th issue of "Hong Kong 01" e-Weekly Newsletter published on May 10, 2022.

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