 
The SAR Chief Executive's second policy address continues to draw
severe criticisms from the public for his neglect of rising unemployment rate
and wages cut-back. The Chief Executive also hints that as the government
revenue shrinks because of the economic slump and Hong Kong will have
budget deficit in the coming year, public expenditure will have to tighten up.
April 5th Action Group member Leung Kwok-hung and another
demonstrator shouted protest slogans during a Chief Executive Q & A
session at the public gallery of Legislative Council. They were then arrested
and led out of the Council by guards.
In the Q & A session, the Chief Executive was bombarded by the
democrats for failing to address the most urgent issues that Hong Kong is
facing, such as rising unemployment and the lack of confidence in the SAR
government. The session was disrupted when Leung Kwok-hung shouted
protest slogans saying that the policy address was a shame because the
government proped up the property and stock market instead of helping the
people. He was then arrested and taken to a police station, but was
released at around 7:00 p.m. It is not certain whether Leung will be charged
for the disruption. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party staged a protest
outside the Legislative Council against the scraping the municipal councils.
In a forum held by Hong Kong Voice of Democracy on October 8,
speakers attacked the Chief Executive for turning a blind eye to the plight of
local workers. Ho Hei-wah, director of one of the local activist group, said
that this address is the worst that he has seen in years and feared that the
confidence crisis will aggravate as the people cannot see any concrete
solutions offered to solve the most urgent socio-economic problems. Apart
from the neglect of the unemployment problem, Ho noted many "long-term
plans" such as positioning Hong Kong as a leading city in the world for the
development and application of information technology, a world class
design and fashion centre, a regional centre for multimedia-based
information and entertainment services, a world centre for the development
of health food and pharmaceuticals based on Chinese medicine, are not
practical as Hong Kong lacks the human, educational, and scientific
resources to compete with other countries in these areas. He criticizes the
Chief Executive for failing to address the problems that the uneducated and
unskilled workers, the group that is most hit because of structural
unemployment, are facing. He calls for a more decentralized approach to
solving the unemployment problem and the government to give the NGOs,
which have more experiences and flexibility in worker training programs,
more resources to help the workers.
Mok Miu-yin, social worker and member of the Alliance against
Unemployment and Poverty, said that the alliance has already collected
around 15,000 signatures demanding for the setting up of the minimun wage
system and financial assistance to the unemployed, but they are all ignored
by the Chief Executive in his policy address.
Law Jou, worker and activist, pointed out that, contrary to the Chief
Executive's view, there are a lot of things the government call do in helping
the workers such as boosting job opportunities through increase of public
expenditure and expanding the public housing program.
Eddie Leung, chief editor of HKVoD, added that the Chief Executive's way
of dealing with problems which he is unable to solve is to ignore them in the
policy address and hopes that the problems will disappear later. This
approach, however, could only aggravates the situation. It is clear that the
Chief Executive has not done some thorough thinking about the "long-term
plans" listed in his address, such as building an Internet Hub in Hong Kong,
he noted. "The premise of an Internet Hub is freedom of speech and free
flow of information. Has the Chief Executive made any committment on
these important issues in his policy address?" he asked.
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