MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): President, the disturbances arising from the opposition to the proposed legislative amendments in 2019, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic lasting from last year to this year, have taken a heavy toll on the vitality of Hong Kong and caused recession across industries. They have also exposed the problems with governance and executive-legislature relationship in Hong Kong that have existed for more than two decades since the reunification. In order to quell the chaos in Hong Kong, the Central Authorities have enacted the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to eradicate the forces of "Hong Kong independence", and have recently further made the decision on improving the electoral system for the full implementation of "patriots administering Hong Kong". This is a major surgical operation on the governance of the Special Administrative Region. We all hope that it is a good start. To improve governance, the responsibility lies on both the executive and the legislature. Apart from the need for the governance team of the Government to conduct a review, Members of the Legislative Council should also reflect on their roles and functions as representatives of the public.

 

President, after the reunification, the Central Authorities adopted a relatively lenient policy towards Hong Kong with the aim of maintaining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, but it has been taken advantage of by the opposition camp. Over the past two decades and more, they have gradually influenced the political ecology of Hong Kong through ideological infiltration at various levels. Particularly in the Legislative Council, under the pretext of monitoring the Government, the opposition camp has actually been nitpicking and grandstanding in a bid to put the Government in a governance quandary. In any event of controversy over a policy, such as in the cases of political reform, national education and the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, they would even make an issue out of it to stir up political turmoil. In such a political atmosphere, quite a few civil servants have gradually developed an evasive attitude towards difficulties and problems.

 

As we all know, under the premise of offering high salaries to maintain a clean civil service, a good foundation and background is the prerequisite for joining the civil service. This is particularly true of senior civil servants, who can be described as the social elite. Before the reunification, under the executive-led governance, and also thanks to the cooperation of the former Legislative Council, many major infrastructure projects and livelihood policies were implemented expeditiously. The civil service team had only to focus its energy and effort on considering how to implement the confirmed policies, without needing to spend too much time on dealing with the former Legislative Council and related bodies. Yet the achievements were evident.

 

However, after the reunification, the executive-led system was misrepresented as separation of powers so that the opposition camp could use the Legislative Council as a stage for obstructing the Government from putting policies in place. From time to time, they took it out on the attending officials. At a later stage, they even went so far as to deliberately stall for time and make groundless accusations, opposing for the sake of opposing. In view of this situation, quite a few civil servants found that even if they had made serious preparations, there was little use in doing so, because anyway the accountability officials would answer questions on their behalf and then the pro-establishment camp would support the passage of any bill, so they have gradually developed a perfunctory work style.

 

Hong Kong's civil service system is very conservative. It does not have the evaluation mechanism with key performance indicators ("KPI") adopted by private enterprises. As long as no major mistakes are made, seniority-based promotions and a worry-free retirement are basically guaranteed and getting sacked is the last thing to happen. In such an atmosphere, it is inevitable for a culture of self-preservation and problem evasion to develop in official circles, characterized by the mindset of "do more, err more and do less, err less". Inconsistent policies from different departments have also given rise to the problem of departments passing the buck to each other. The public see it with their eyes and keep it in their hearts. This is why the Government's popularity has always been in the doldrums.

 

President, it is generally believed in the community that a mechanism for accountability and appropriate appraisal, together with rewards and penalties, should be introduced into the civil service system in order to solve the bureaucratic problems that have accumulated over the years. Otherwise, even with a return to social peace and an improvement to the executive-legislature relationship, it will not be easy for Hong Kong to keep up with the competition from peripheral cities.

 

As Members of the Legislative Council, whether returned by functional constituencies or returned through direct elections, we have to play better roles in representing the public in the future with a good understanding of the sentiments and opinions of our constituencies, so as to put forward practical proposals on the Government's governance and provide advice on the future of Hong Kong.

 

President, I so submit.