The argument that top salaries must be paid to attract talent into the Hong Kong civil service sounds unsavory.

This doesn't suggest the Hong Kong civil servants are over-paid. But the impression that young talented people are joining the civil service because of the attractive compensation scheme is certainly not something that we would like to promulgate.

Instead, we should try to educate our young people to believe that it is an honor to serve the public, without, of course, the requirement to take an oath of poverty.

When I was interviewed for my first reporting job at a local newspaper in Hong Kong, my editor urged me to reconsider my application because, as he said, the job would never make me rich. But he also added that the job would offer hot-blooded and liberal-minded idealists a sense of accomplishment.

To be sure, good civil servants are made of a different mettle. But they, too, must possess the same dedication and harbor the same ambition to advance the interest of their fellow citizens, sometimes at their own expense.

It is quite common in some countries, including the US and Britain, for highly successful business people and professionals to answer the call to serve in their respective governments. I don't think any of them cared how much the job would pay because it could never match what they were earning in the private sector.

In contrast, Hong Kong has placed a strong emphasis on equating its civil service pay scale with that of the private sector. But when you consider the huge differences in the two systems, the practice of using the private-sector pay scale as a reference looks questionable if not outright nonsensical.

The civil service of Hong Kong operates on a well-established set of rules and regulations based on the concept of collective responsibility. As such, the system has the built-in mechanism to minimize the abuse of power by individual officials. It also means that not a single official can be held responsible to the public for administrative inadequacies or oversights.

In contrast, individual performance is emphasized in most private enterprises. When a costly mistake is made, heads will roll. Every employee in a private sector company is measured against his or her performance. Those who fail to meet the grade will most certainly be let go, and those who exceed their quota allotments are supposed to be reworded accordingly. This is at least the basic concept.

It is easy to see that the level of job security in the civil service far exceeds that in the private sector. What's more, the pressure to perform is understandably much lighter on civil servants than on employees, especially those in sales, in private sector businesses.

This raises the question of whether the government needs to compete with the private sector for the best and brightest to fill the civil service posts. It seems obvious that the well-established government machinery can be managed by a team of dedicated bureaucrats who don't have to be terribly bright as long as they are diligent enough to follow the rules.

But mediocrity could inhibit the government from leading Hong Kong in overcoming the challenges posed by and exploiting the opportunities arising from the rapid economic development on the mainland. In these trying times, we need the bureaucrats to keep our system working and we also need innovative thinkers to show us the way to the next level of social and economic progress.

This talent doesn't join the government for the money. Like the best and brightest reporters in our profession, these people believe it's an honor to do something good for the society.

E-mail: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/17/2007 page10)