A Hong Kong that offers a rewarding, bright future to its young people and a delightful, worry-free retirement for the elderly is the city that we all want to build. As I pointed out in a study on long-term competitiveness that I conducted for the Savantas Policy Institute six years ago, a city that wins the hearts of its people will also be a competitive city. Conversely, a city that fails to win the hearts of its people will gradually see its competitiveness go downhill.
Winning the hearts of Hong Kong people is a challenging task that requires all civil servants to be willing to put themselves in the position of those that they serve. Moreover, this daunting task is not only the responsibility of civil servants, but also that of business leaders, educators, opinion leaders and particularly the media.
Quite apart from the many deep-seated social and economic problems that trouble many Hong Kong people, misunderstanding and fear of the Communist Party of China is one reason why many Hong Kong families are leaving the city they call home.
The fear of the CPC at least in part stems from biased reporting in the Western media. A recent CNN report is correct in noting how President Xi Jinping “placed more emphasis on quality over quantity” for new members of the CPC, but its bias soon reveals itself to careful readers: “He has demanded absolute loyalty from party members, launched an ideology drive to shore up their faith, and unleashed a crackdown on internal dissent.” The truth is that the only “ideology” that CPC members must subscribe to is the will to serve the people, and the humility to learn what works and what doesn’t based on science and the reality in China. The “absolute loyalty” is never about loyalty and obedience to any person.
It (the SAR government) must engage more young people to contribute their ideas and help with its policy making. Instead of banning sensitive subjects for discussion in schools, it is better to allow misinformed viewpoints to be presented and then refuted through reason and evidence. Young minds with doubts about the CPC need to learn how the Party has corrected past mistakes and kept working better for the benefit of the country and its future
Today a CPC member who puts his own interests ahead of the national interest, or one who insists on pushing through policies that do not work, resulting in catastrophes, will be purged from the Party. This is not a “crackdown on dissent.” Even punishing those who sabotage the political system in China, which has worked so well for the country, cannot be described as a “crackdown on dissent”. The Harvard’s Ash Center’s often cited survey results have demonstrated how much the Chinese people trust the central government of the People’s Republic of China. Unfortunately, not many Hong Kong youngsters have heard of it.
Just as the CPC has been able to win the hearts of Chinese mainland people, there is only one way to win the hearts of Hong Kong people: a proactive, sincere concern for the interests of all the city’s dwellers. The public interest must come first, private interests second. That is why I do not believe in extraordinarily high salaries for civil servants and public bodies. Years ago, Singapore had to roll back those extraordinarily high salaries to ease people’s anger. Good salaries for civil servants and public bodies are necessary to attract talent and to signal recognition for the great responsibility associated with their positions. But extraordinarily high salaries produce a disconnect with the people that could engender arrogance and loss of touch.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government must be sensitive to the most urgent needs of the disadvantaged: the poorly housed, the sick who face unbearable medical bills to save their lives and ease their suffering; the old and lonely and fragile who need humane care and attention; the severely disabled, the care of whom has created tremendous, sometimes unbearable stress on caregivers; … the list goes on.
The HKSAR government and business leaders must put themselves in the position of those whom they serve. There were reports that the food served in some quarantine centers was substandard. This could easily have been avoided. Today, the HKSAR government is taking the easy way out to contain imported cases through flight bans. This must change. It must rise to the challenge of improving the effectiveness of its quarantine and testing facilities and procedures. It must not dodge the responsibility of explaining to the public why we need to build more incinerators. It needs to revise the borders of our country parks so we can have more land for housing and for other community needs. It must engage more young people to contribute their ideas and help with its policymaking. Instead of banning sensitive subjects for discussion in schools, it is better to allow misinformed viewpoints to be presented and then refuted through reason and evidence. Young minds with doubts about the CPC need to learn how the Party has corrected past mistakes and kept working better for the benefit of the country and its future.
The author is director of Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute, Lingnan University.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.