Soul-searching of Hong Kong amidst confusion about its future - Alex Chan

Last Saturday, 14 co-signatories of the Hong Kong Core Values Declaration, including myself, met the Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa in his office to address their common concern. The Declaration, which appeared in two local newspapers last Monday, received support from 294 academics and professionals coming from various sectors. They worried about the erosion of Hong Kong's core values which were exemplified in several recent incidents, including the Equal Opportunity Commission scandal, the Harbor Fest saga and the recent move of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress to interpret the Basic Law.

Core values as "Hong Kong's lifeline"

The Chief Executive's swift response is to be welcome. In the meeting, he expressed clear endorsement of all the eight core values listed in the Declaration (liberty, democracy, human rights, rule of law, fairness, social equity, care and compassion, openness and transparency, plurality, respect for individuals, and upholding professionalism), although he said other values like filial piety could be added. When he met the press after the meeting, he described these core values as "Hong Kong's lifeline."
The Chief Executive's unequivocal support of the Declaration is, however, surprising. The SAR Government has consistently maintained that Hong Kong is an economic city. In fact, Tung's administration has continued to give a public impression that it takes economic development as the top priority issue, while other social and political agenda must be put at the back seat. Personally, the Chief Executive is well known for his distaste against politics. Does his latest endorsement of the Hong Kong Core Values Declaration imply a brand new approach to governing Hong Kong? Or is it merely a matter of political convenience?

A matter of political convenience?

Since the Central Government responded with a resounding "no" to the strong call within the Hong Kong SAR for constitutional development, in particular universal suffrage, early this year, Vice-President President Zeng Qinghong proposed a new catchphrase to advise Hong Kong people. He maintained that "development is the eternal theme." By this, he meant that Hong Kong should single-mindedly focus on economic development. He clearly hoped that Hong Kong people could shift their attention away from political squabbling about universal suffrage, and grasped the immense business opportunities which appeared suddenly after the implementation of CEPA.

The Chief Executive's support of the importance of core values to Hong Kong's future development squares neither with Vice-President Zeng's advice. He seems to suggest that Hong Kong people should defend a broader concept of development, which put emphasis on care, compassion, equal opportunity, sustainable development as much as business development.

Confusion about Hong Kong's future direction

Today, Hong Kong people are more than ever before facing an intellectual confusion about how they conceive the future direction of this city's development. Political squabbling about constitutional development and patriotism is merely the symptom. The Hong Kong Core Values Declaration can be taken as an attempt to bring a new and broader angle of thinking about the challenge that Hong Kong people are facing at this critical point of time, what constituted Hong Kong's success in the past, and what we need to defend today so that Hong Kong can continue to thrive in future.

One may suspect the political motivation behind the Chief Executive's positive endorsement of the Declaration. But anyhow, if he is right that the core values mentioned in the Declaration are "Hong Kong's lifeline," we have good reason to ask him to rethink his definition of Hong Kong's role as an economic city and the recent call for single-minded focus on business development.

Alex Wo-shun Chan is a lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also the Secretary of SynergyNet - a policy think-tank.