Daydreams turn into startups

The Legislative Council on Wednesday started debating over the motion of thanks before deciding its fate with a vote. To be perfectly honest, this colonial-era tradition of thanking the head of government for delivering the Policy Address each year is just a formality at best. Or, according to some political pundits, it can be a tell-tale sign of the relationship between the legislature and chief executive. A symbolic gesture it may be but the motion does offer the opposition camp an opportunity to make the CE "look bad" by blocking the expression of appreciation for the annual presentation of major policies regardless of what the public has to say. That is probably why the motion was struck down the past ten times but hardly anyone raised an eyebrow about it.

It is no secret that the opposition camp in Hong Kong never misses a chance to undermine the lawful administration of the special administrative region government with or without excuse and blocking the motion of thanks is never about the address as much as the CE. In other words, everything is personal when it comes to the opposition versus the CE. This time, however, many people believed the motion stood a good chance of being passed by LegCo because the opposition camp is six votes down from last year. They blame current CE Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor for not being able to mend the divided society, even though it was those rogue politicians' own fault to begin with.

It is not clear how important the opposition think the motion of thanks vote truly is to her public image but the fact is Lam enjoys higher approval ratings in popularity polls despite efforts by her detractors to turn the public against her. And she apparently owes much of this public support to her very first Policy Address since taking office. The opposition camp can ignore public opinion poll results selectively, which they do all the time, but cannot erase the fact that Lam presented a solid address most Hong Kong residents like more than otherwise. How well the policies will work notwithstanding, the opposition already lost another round with or without the motion of thanks vote.

Some people have in recent years often questioned the need to follow this colonial tradition of thanking the head of government for delivering the Policy Address or some other significant decision. And many members of the public agree with their view, particularly that it is a waste of precious time and taxpayers' money for next to no real benefit as far as Hong Kong society as a whole is concerned. That said, many people are also convinced the opposition camp will stick to its own tradition of opposing just for the sake of it if nothing else makes sense even to its own members. After all, one opportunity less to show their prejudice won't make much of a difference one way or another, because they can afford to ignore public will.

(HK Edition 11/09/2017 page7)