Having been inaugurated less than a month ago, the new-term Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government under the leadership of John Lee Ka-chiu has made a good start to effective governance by acting quickly to enhance the executive-legislative relationship and implement precise pandemic control measures to defeat the COVID-19 outbreak in the near future.
The new-term government, under the “can-do” spirit of the pragmatic results-oriented guidelines, is marching its way to fulfilling President Xi Jinping’s aspirations for Hong Kong to “improve its governance system, governance capacity, and governance efficacy”.
An improved executive-legislative relationship shall facilitate the swift passage of important bills that affect people’s livelihoods, and the precise and effective measures to combat the pandemic shall bring about an early economic recovery, leading Hong Kong to a brighter future in the next five years.
This is obviously the result of implementing the principles of “patriots administering Hong Kong” and “improving the electoral system” after the 2019 social unrest, enhancing ultimately the governance capability of the HKSAR under the “one country, two systems” policy. Every cloud has a silver lining. The havoc launched by the anti-China forces and their local proxies, in effect, has pushed the SAR back on the right track of the “one country, two systems” framework, which, in essence, should be carried out only by patriots familiar with both systems and the necessary expertise in coping with local affairs.
Soon after his inauguration on July 1, Chief Executive John Lee wasted no time in beefing up his governance by establishing a monthly informal communication mechanism between his ministers and legislative councilors to facilitate policymaking. Good policymaking, after all, goes halfway toward achieving effective governance.
Lee, together with some of his top ministers and their deputies, met lawmakers in a newly introduced “antechamber chats” earlier for informal exchanges. The monthly “antechamber chats” were actually proposed by Lee and accepted by Legislative Council President Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen.
(John) Lee said the “antechamber chats” were conducted in a good atmosphere, and he hoped that the standing communication mechanism could facilitate positive interaction between the government and Legislative Council members, boosting the executive-led and patriot-led governance
A number of issues, including cross-boundary reopening, were discussed during the 90-minute private meeting. Both sides hailed the closed-door chats as frank and useful. Such a pragmatic approach, I think, is applaudable for a city plagued by deep-seated problems to enable it to crack down on some of the thorniest issues.
Participating lawmakers said the first meeting of the “antechamber chats” was a “good start”. They expect future meetings to be more fruitful when such informal communications between the two sides become more frequent and in-depth, speeding up the preparations, amendments and passage of bills.
Before the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong as well as of the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”, and the improvments to the electoral system, the passage of important bills relating to economic development of the SAR was often maliciously obstructed and filibustered by the two major opposition parties, the Democratic Party and the Civic Party, in the legislature in the past few years. Their ultimate purpose was not for the benefit of Hong Kong people, but just to discredit and cripple the governance of the SAR government for a final attempt to overthrow the administration in 2019 with the help of some anti-China forces.
Fortunately, Hong Kong survived the political turmoil with the help of the motherland.
Lee said the “antechamber chats” were conducted in a good atmosphere, and he hoped that the standing communication mechanism could facilitate positive interaction between the government and Legislative Council members, boosting the executive-led and patriot-led governance.
The Lee administration has also reacted quickly to the recent surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases. Suppressing the pandemic is the SAR government’s top priority so that it can be in a better position to discuss the reopening of cross-boundary travel between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland as early as possible. However, Hong Kong also needs to open wider to the world to maintain its competitiveness.
Having seen the outbreak steadily rising, the new secretary of health, Lo Chung-mau, responded promptly by putting in place some forceful anti-pandemic measures, hoping to suppress the rebound without tightening up further the social distancing measures.
One measure is to require those undergoing home quarantine to wear electronic wristbands to confirm their presence at home. The government is also working on adding two color codes to the LeaveHomeSafe app — “red”, for those who test positive, and “yellow”, for those who have just returned to Hong Kong from overseas and are undergoing quarantine. People with a yellow code will be allowed to go to work but they cannot visit high-risk places like aged-care homes or venues where masks are removed.
As far as anti-pandemic strategies are concerned, the health chief is very pragmatic. To open Hong Kong wider to the world, Lo said, conditional quarantine-free travel could be allowed by November in time for a global bankers’ summit to be held in the city.
Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, is also a global financial center and an international communications hub, so how can it satisfy the strict pandemic control criteria of the Chinese mainland to prevent large-scale importation of infections via the city while at the same time opening up itself to the rest of the world? China has been adopting a very tough “dynamic zero infection” approach, while many Western countries are adopting a “lying flat”, or laid-back, approach to live with the virus.
It is a big challenge for the SAR government to strike a balance on this important matter. It has now adopted a new precision approach by intensifying PCR nucleic acid testing and tracking efforts, which aim to contain the outbreak to a minimum level acceptable to the central government so that reopening of cross-boundary travel can materialize as early as possible.
On the other hand, the new-term SAR administration, though occupied by numerous pressing priorities, such as the local legislation of Article 23 and strengthening of patriotic education in the city, does not take lightly citizens’ minute but imperative issues.
One example is the recent launch of Passport Mobile Application Stations where Hong Kong citizens can renew expired passports or make new passport applications quickly. This is a user-friendly measure.
Hong Kong people love to travel, and they have treated leisure travel as an effective way of escaping from the stressful pace of life in the bustling city.
However, Hong Kong people are fed up with the two years-plus lockdown caused by the lingering pandemic. Many of us are burned out, physically and mentally. Indeed, it is great to know that many countries have relaxed their pandemic control restrictions and opened their borders for overseas tourists.
Nevertheless, it can be very frustrating for those who find out at the last minute that their HKSAR passports have expired. So the Immigration Department’s temporary initiative, while it looks minute and may not be eye-catching, is a timely and convenient platform for many who need to renew their passports within a short time.
Converted from two trucks and equipped with laptops and photo-taking facilities, the two mobile service stations will travel around all 18 districts of Hong Kong until early September. They will operate from 10 am to 6 pm, when people can do their passport renewals or make new applications. It takes applicants about 10 minutes to complete the application procedure and wait approximately another five days to receive their new passports. What more can you ask for?
I eagerly look forward to seeing a very efficient and effective governance of the new-term HKSAR administration in the near future. As time goes by, government ministers and legislators shall be able to build up a good working relationship under the “patriots administering Hong Kong” and “improving the electoral system” principles.
Only with a better policymaking and implementation process can life in Hong Kong be much improved, and more and more long-lost happy faces be seen again.
The author is a member of the Hong Kong Association of Media Veterans and a freelance writer.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.