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Feature: New officials to realize HK people running HK  |
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A new batch of principal officials have been appointed in Hong Kong on June 24th to head the HKSAR government soon -- a realization of the principle of the "one country, two systems" policy.
Working under HKSAR Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, the 14 new officials and other related appointments are another example of "Hong Kong people running Hong Kong" under the Principal Officials Accountability System to be officially instituted on July 1.
Under the new system, the principal officials are expected to work together with a newly appointed public opinion survey expert so as to better heed and serve the needs of the public - such promises were outlined in Tung's policy platform when he was running for the second term of office.
Meeting reporters at the Central Government Offices shortly after their appointment at Government House, most of the newly appointed principal officials have made it a mandate to listen to public views.
Lau Siu Kai, currently professor and chairman of the Department of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has been appointed head of the government's Central Policy Unit. Proficient in public opinion research, Lau said he will give full regards to public grievance and demands.
"The fact that I am included in Mr. Tung's government shows that Mr. Tung is serious about having an enlightened, liberal and pro-active government, which has basis in public opinions," Lau said.
Tung has aptly hailed the introduction of "dawning of a new era for the governance of Hong Kong" Monday, in stark contrast to the days under the British rule, where public opinions were not only snubbed, there was also systematic suppression of the freedom of expression.
Renowned Hong Kong barrister Patrick Yu Shuk Siu recalled how the former British Hong Kong administration muffled public opinions by abusing the law.
Yu, who was appointed the first ethnic-Chinese crown counsel or government prosecutor in the 1950s, told Xinhua how he came across a case, where a Catholic surnamed Sheridan wrote an commentary published in Echo, a school magazine of the Catholic Wah Yan College, which led to his arrest.
"In one of its issues, Friar Sheridan published an article criticizing the judicial system in Hong Kong under which our judges, unlike their counterparts in the United Kingdom, were not appointed from the Bar, but instead from the colonial legal service," he said.
Without the experience working as barristers, Sheridan wrote that the judges would, more likely than not, be biased subconsciously in favor of the prosecution, Yu said.
Sheridan was eventually convicted of contempt by the British Hong Kong government and fined 200 Hong Kong dollars (25.6 U.S. dollars), in default of which Sheridan would have to go to jail for a week, Yu said.
Joseph Cheng Yu Shek, a political science professor at the City University of Hong Kong told Xinhua that the new era for the governance of Hong Kong will see a better understanding of the community.
Commenting on the HKSAR government appointment of Lau Siu Kai of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, into the Executive Council, Joseph Cheng Yu Shek said, "Most modern government, including the HKSAR government will increasingly use public opinion surveys to secure a better understanding of the demand and grievances of the community and facilitate better the decision-making process."
The reformed Executive Council here is certainly superior to the Executive Council during the days of the British rule era, which represented mostly business interests, and which has been criticized by the public here as "businessmen running Hong Kong" and for snubbing grassroots interests.
Cheng remarked, "Basically, we have to admit the British administration fully respected the views and interests of the community. It was a political convention during the British colonial period that the Hong Kong Bank, the Jardine Group, the Swire Group... all had representatives either in the Legislative or Executive Council."
"In the British colonial era, there were only one or two symbolic representatives representing grassroots interests. The rest were superbly representing businesses, as well as protections closely associated with the business community," he continued, adding that he had always been advocating wider representation in the two political bodies.
Commenting on the overall accountability system, Cheng said that it is generally amongst the public here that Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa should have his own team, and that the team should share his political platform and political philosophy, Cheng said.
He particularly welcomed Tung's inclusion of talents from the private sector to work in the areas of high technology and financial and banking services.
"This is seen as necessary. I think it is a general acceptance and a good thing to bring talents from the business community into the government. It is a general trend in modern government in western countries," he said.
Earlier, the HKSAR government has also announced plans of elevating the role played by the SAR's district officers to boost democracy at the district level.
HKSAR Financial Secretary Anthony Leung said the district officers, who belong to the HKSAR Home Affairs Department, will also be made liason persons to be in charge of committee work to be coordinated by the HKSAR government at the district level, particularly in reviving the local economy.
The attempt is considered a great leap forward by many local politics or public administration scholars in Hong Kong as, traditionally, from the times of the former British rule era, scholars, such as Owen H. H. Wong, a former University of Hong Kong professor, have criticized the role of such officers for being nominal in their function and as democratic veneer.
Now Leung called the HKSAR government's move the "unleashing of their pent-up power."
The role the Hong Kong SAR government plays in reviving the economy is to "unfetter the democratic power at the district level, coordinate efforts and to promote the economic revival, he said.
Editor:Inner Wu
Source:Xinhuanet
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