26 June 2005

Donald Tsang won the race to be Hong Kong's new Chief Executive at an impressive gallop. With all due respect to Mr Tsang and his campaign team, that was the easy part.

Now comes the trickier bit - converting that successful candidacy into a credible and lasting leadership.

There is little question that Mr Tsang put his message across effectively in the few short weeks that stood between the announcement of his candidacy and his crossing of the finishing line when he secured the required amount of election committee nominations to knock out his rivals.

His election platform, however, was for the large part one based on a succession of generalizations. It was a message that was big on the broad statements but small when it came to dealing in specifics, rich in rhetoric but disappointingly lacking in detail.

Now that Mr Tsang's leadership is confirmed, it is time for him to put some flesh on the bones. We need to get down to business and sort out the specifics - and our new Chief Executive is going to show his willingness to listen as well as his ability to lead to meet the challenges ahead.

How, for instance, does Mr Tsang intend to combat poverty? What does he think is the best way to handle the West Kowloon Cultural Project? When does he believe Hong Kong will be ready for universal suffrage, and why is it still too early to put a timetable to this process?

As Hong Kong ’ s leader, Mr Tsang has a choice of two ways to approach these key issues: Act first and consult later, as the previous administration did on so many occasions in recent years, or consult first and act later.

We in the Liberal Party sincerely hope Mr Tsang will choose the path of consultation and consensus. Too often, the government has pushed through policies with a lack of consultation and the inevitable result has been that those policies have run into trouble.

Mr Tsang needs to work to improve the relations between the government and the political parties, particularly the government-friendly parties, to ensure a smoother passage for the policies he wants to pursue.

I am glad to see that Mr Tsang has suggested appointing more representatives from political parties to consultative bodies and indicated that he will seek their views before drawing up policies. This is sensible and it is something I have advocated for a long time.

It is important, however, that these consultations go beyond tokenism and that Mr Tsang listens and responds to the views of those he consults. He must be prepared to step back, rethink and where necessary back down, otherwise the consultation process will be a sham.

There may be support for a "can-do" leader in Hong Kong, but there is certainly no support for a King Canute - the headstrong monarch who stood in the rising tide and ordered the sea to retreat.

Mr Tsang is a popular figure in Hong Kong and it is crucial that, as leader, he does not lose touch with the public. He must consult widely so that he knows what Hong Kong people are thinking and reads their mood before he launches his policy initiatives.

It is important that Mr Tsang surrounds himself with people who are not afraid to speak out, and he must be willing to expose himself to wise but different counsel. He should appoint representatives from the government-friendly political parties to the Executive Council to help him to decide and promote any public policy. Politicians are all elected, and are therefore closer to the pulse of the people.

Mr Tsang has already indicated that he will explore opportunities of closer co-operation with pro-democracy lawmakers in an effort to strengthen social harmony and I applaud that. He must open his ears to voices from every quarter of our society, even the opposition.

He has announced that he is considering the creation of posts of special assistants for the principle officials, drawn from friendly political parties. However, these young assistants have to swear allegiance to their bosses and disown the political party that recommended them.

I have reservations about this idea. Do our political parties, which struggle often enough to fill their senior let alone their junior ranks, really have a big enough pool of up and coming talent to fill these positions?

Furthermore can we justify the expenditure in creating these positions, with directorate posts commanding monthly salaries of over $100,000?

I believe the principle officials should be equipped to sell their policies to legislators with the support and help of civil servants who would be more effective at doing so than a political appointee who may be swayed by his own party political agenda.

These are all issues Mr Tsang will have to ponder in the coming weeks and months, and I sincerely hope he will not ponder them alone. Hong Kong, now more than ever, needs a leader who is willing to consult and to consider the opinion of others before deciding.

The ability to seek consensus and to compromise when necessary is a sign of strength, not weakness, in a leader. I believe and hope that it is a quality that our new Chief Executive possesses.

A strong Chief Executive, as I have already said, is not determined by the number of votes or nominations he collects from the election committee. We need only look as far back as our last chief executive to see that.

Rather, his strength is proved by the actions he takes once that process is complete. For Mr Tsang, the challenge began on Friday when he was sworn in as Chief Executive in Beijing.

They may not have a direct say in the matter but in two years' time, the people of Hong Kong will judge whether Mr Tsang has been equal to the task and whether or not he deserves another five years. Their voices will be heard.