We Need Obama’s Guts

The Obama administration proposed a health care reform bill which was finally approved by the legislature. However, Republican governors from 13 states jointly pleaded to the U.S. Justice Department that this bill was unconstitutional; Republicans also declared that if they win the majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives in the midterm elections, they will abolish this bill. However, on March 21, Obama called the health care bill “A victory for common sense.” And common sense cannot be repudiated.

The Hong Kong Administration Should Seize Every Minute

From whatever standpoint one is coming from, we can learn a lot from the historical breakthrough of American health care reform. For the Hong Kong administration, there are, I think, at least two things to learn. Firstly, the Hong Kong administration is preparing for health care reform, during which America’s experience can be taken for reference. Secondly, the administration of this Special Administrative Region should follow the example of Obama, who once he sets his goal will go after it steadily.

As for Hong Kong’s health care reform, though it is different from America, there is one thing for sure: Hong Kong is facing an aging, hardly controllable growing gap between the wealthy and poor, development bottleneck of young people, easily-rising-seldom-falling real estate market, restricted management and administration and so on; there are many administrative structural problems. As a result, health care reform cannot be done at one time, and it should not be done merely superficially; it needs to be carried out step by step by the administration or several administrations of the Special Region. This does not mean that the present administration doesn’t have to strive to reach any goals. On the contrary, because Hong Kong nowadays has so many deep rooted problems, it needs its administration to seize every minute to put medium-and-long-term policy into practice.

Confusing Policy

But, recently, some issues, which are hard to understand, arose in Hong Kong. Firstly, rebuilding Yongli Street in Sheung Wan turned into protectionism. Related officials denied that it’s because the movie “Echoes of the Rainbow,” which won international awards, was partially shot on this street, and they could not explain clearly why the decision made after long consulting and planning was thrown away overnight. People familiar with Yongli Street almost all believe that those few buildings are not worth preserving and that reconstruction is reasonable. There are many tenement flats in Hong Kong, but as these buildings in Yongli Street ended up being protected all of a sudden, then there must be some convincing reasons if it’s not because of “Echoes of the Rainbow.”

Secondly, the government suddenly started checking out big real estate firms, and uncommonly requiring a sales status of a certain great house, and unexpectedly inspecting certain buildings' prices. Supervising realtors’ sales jobs should be the regular work of a government agency, and if there were some outstanding issues, the government should resolve them publicly. However, when Hong Kong’s society pays attention to the supply and demand of the real estate market, the government suddenly makes an inquiry into sales methods very loudly. This inevitably gets taken by the people as fighting a minor issue to divert people’s attention from the major issue.

The Structural Change in the Economy is Taking Long Time

The essential problem in the Hong Kong economy is that the structural change in the economy is taking too long. About a year ago, the administration of the Special Region declared that economy in Hong Kong must turn into a knowledge economy, so in a hurry six industries were declared to be the new points of growth for the economy. On one hand I agree: flourishing finance itself cannot feed seven million residents in Hong Kong; it needs multi-element development to support the people. On the other hand there is something I criticize: choosing these very six industries is not enough, and the policy which means to promote them is insufficient.

Direct criticism is unpleasant, but as a scholar and permanent resident in Hong Kong, I have to be practical. Which six industries to choose will have great influence on the knowledge economy, and these industries will affect the development and track of the new economy. And the insufficiency of the related policy will affect the speed and progress of the structural change in the economy. But if all of the chosen industries have definite advantages or potentials, and at the same time, the policy which helps them to improve is complete, then as a result, the structural change in Hong Kong’s economy would be smooth and rapid. And if only some of the six industries have developing advantages or potentials, and if a complete set of policy is provided, the economic transition will not be as good; however, Hong Kong’s economy will be growing at a certain pace. The worst thing is that both the selected industries and policy are barely satisfactory. In that case, the economic outlook will be rocky.

To sum up, we must not preserve Yongli Street, but rather rebuild it. Or, a new believable argument must be announced. Although enhancing the supervision of large real estate firms isn’t a bad idea, it cannot replace proper policy during economic transition, which can promote economic growth. During economic and political transitions, we need politicians with guts and talent, just like Obama, who showed such traits in his battle for health care reform.