The SAR government has faced a lot of troubles lately. While the political hubbub surrounding Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po's suspected conflict of interest over a piece of property in the North East New Territories (NENT) is anything but gone, Franklin Lam Fan-keung resigned as member of the Executive Council after he was cleared of wrongdoing in the sales of two luxury apartments and Ho Kin-chung, as political assistant to secretary for development, also because of suspected conflict of interest over properties in NENT. The incidents inevitably triggered heated public debate, but the focus has been regrettably on the individuals involved rather than what makes the matter so controversial in the first place - runaway property prices.

In fact, there was another incident of similar nature of late: Secretary for Education Ng Hak-kim apologized three times to the public after his failure to declare interests in a consultancy firm came to light late last month. He was lucky the case was quickly forgotten afterwards and Chan, Lam and Ho should be jealous of him. Was the public particularly kind to Ng? No. The main reason for public leniency on Ng is that his undeclared interests are not related to properties - Hong Kong's leading cause of social discontent thanks to their outrageous prices.

Real estate investment is legal in Hong Kong. But, due to continued irrational price hikes over the decades, it has become so profitable everyone who can afford it is doing it as an easy way to get rich; while those who cannot afford it are considered losers. So much so the property market has taken Hong Kong economy hostage by virtue of its spell on the whole society, which has been divided into the haves and have-nots based on property ownership. It is almost a given that all senior government officials own more properties than they and their families need as residences. And when property investments are so politically sensitive it is very easy for bureaucrats to get in trouble if they are not extremely careful.

The author is a current affairs commentator. This is an excerpted translation of his article published in Hong Kong Commercial Daily on August 6.

(HK Edition 08/07/2013 page1)