Get real about our good fortune and capitalize on it

Hilton Cheong-Leen explains why Carrie Lam faces a tremendous challenge in her maiden Policy Address in trying to meet the many and diverse concerns of HK society

Carrie Lam's policy address is expected to address a whole slew of community expectations and I don't envy her the herculean task of trying to please them all.

So I shall focus only on a few issues, including my support for a Children's Commission to holistically improve the quality of living of Hong Kong children as they grow up. It should be set up under the purview of the chief secretary's office soon.

As a start, the new commission should review, in consultation with school authorities and parents' representatives, to take remedial action about the numerous complaints that primary school students each day carry in their schoolbags excessively heavy loads of text-books that can seriously harm the child's physical development and general well-being.

Regarding poverty alleviation, our Commission on Poverty and the administration should collaborate closely with our hardworking NGOs in engaging the whole community with the aim of reducing by half the estimated 1 million Hong Kong people, many of whom are children, still living in poverty, within the coming five years. Given our massive financial reserves, this is a realistic goal and a responsible government should have the political will to achieve it.

Our new chief executive was right in embarking on foreign visits so soon as taking office to elevate Hong Kong's profile. In this age of intense connectivity and interdependence, building up close ties with your neighbors offers a wide range of not just economic but political and social advantages as well. One need only take a look around other strife-torn parts of the world to understand that being a good neighbor is not a given. It requires deliberate and persistent efforts to cultivate good neighborly relations. Carrie Lam's efforts in this respect should be acknowledged and supported by the business community and the public.

It's encouraging that she is setting the tone for her secretaries by her regular district visits. Political leaders can easily become detached from their subjects' struggles with the realities of life unless they make an effort to hear their voices without it being filtered by subordinates.

The West Kowloon Cultural District project was a brilliant idea to start with. Unfortunately, its progress over the years was hampered by frequent changes in its leadership and various conflicts. Carrie Lam's appointment of Henry Tang Ying-yen, a former financial secretary and subsequently chief secretary, as well as a well-known supporter of the arts, will undoubtedly energize the entire project and ensure the realization of its original vision. Before long, we hope it would become a major draw for visitors to Hong Kong, and signal that our cultural attractions are comparable to our economic success. The project promises to greatly substantiate our claim to be "Asia's World City".

Carrie Lam's conciliatory approach to opponents of the co-location arrangement for the Express Rail Link should bear fruit soon, or else the public would condemn them for opposing a major transport facilitation plan purely to gain political points. Unless the opposition "comes on board" with the government's plan, they will pay for their obstinacy in due course at the next polls. Their current opposition does not make sense given such co-location border check-point arrangements have functioned without a hitch along the borders of several neighboring countries without anyone questioning its political rationality. This seems more symptomatic of our political malaise in Hong Kong than anything else that we must get rid of as soon as possible.

The obstructionism inside the last Legislative Council either through filibustering or other senseless and trivial opposition can be minimized with some justifiable changes to house rules. The LegCo president and various committee chairmen should have a serious discussion on how this can be brought about and quickly if we want a more productive LegCo. It must be understood that delays in approving enabling legislation can sometimes have huge cost implications. In such cases, and it has happened from time to time, both the government treasury and taxpayers ended up being the big losers.

The government was right in urging all to grasp the opportunities being presented to us as a major player in implementing the historic Belt and Road Initiative. Our young people should adjust to the special needs of this initiative and take advantage of Carrie Lam's plan to start a civil service training college, which will, among other things, teach students the special skills required to become more effective enablers.

Just like the Belt and Road Initiative, the Greater Bay Area project promises to offer Hong Kong people new opportunities. It's about time Hong Kong residents spent more time counting their blessings and making the most of them, rather than keep on whining about problems both real and imagined.

And what's wrong with teaching our students more about Chinese history and cultivating a sense of their patriotism - something which is taken for granted elsewhere but ascribed locally to some sinister motives! It's baffling but this is what happens when some opposition politicians try to politicize even the most innocuous things.

(HK Edition 10/11/2017 page8)