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Beijing to kick Hong Kong leader
upstairs
By Janus Lam
HONG KONG - Tung Chee-hwa, the unpopular
chief executive of Hong Kong, is expected to step
down shortly from the top job although he still
has two years left on his term. The Beijing
leadership, dissatisfied with Tung's performance,
is expected on March 12 to nominate him to as a
vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a puppet organ of
so-called multi-party cooperation. Tung's
departure appeared sealed after the retirement
last year of his major sponsor, former Chinese
president and party chief Jiang Zemin.
According to the rule book of mainland
officialdom, whoever is nominated to the CPPCC has
soon to leave his or her current position. Rumor
has it that the isolated Tung will announce his
resignation as the chief executive on the official
declaration of his nomination. Tung was among 10
Hong Kong officials nominated to the CPPCC on
February 28, according to the Hong Kong-based The
Standard.
Also, whispers making the rounds
in Hong Kong's financial market have it that Tung
has determined to resign, and Donald Tsang, chief
secretary of Tung's administration, will
temporarily fill his shoes. The Basic Law, the
constitution of Hong Kong, says that a successor
will be elected within six months after the chief
executive's resignation.
Pro-Beijing
sources said the nomination to the consultative
conference indicates Beijing's continuing favor of
Tung, and said that in his new position,
equivalent to that of a national leader, would
continue to serve Hong Kong.
However, many
regard the arrangement as a sign of Tung's loss of
favor with Beijing, as the consultative conference
post is always reserved exclusively for those
stepping down from high positions before bowing
out from the political stage. By this
well-calculated move, Beijing can save itself from
having to defend an increasingly unpopular leader
whose tenure in office has been marked by policy
failures, popular discontent and massive public
protests increasingly focused on his rule.
The years 2003 and 2004 witnessed
unprecedented mass protests in Hong Kong on July
1, the official holiday to commemorate its
handover to Beijing, and half a million and over
150,000 residents were reported to have
participated, respectively. That inevitably
created an unpleasant impression of Tung's
governance to Beijing.
Since Tung was
handpicked by Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese
president who finally gave up his powerful
Communist Party post last September, it was
expected that no change in Hong Kong would occur
until president and party chief Hu Jintao, Jiang's
successor, consolidated his power in office. Tung
was Jiang's man, while Tsang appears to be Hu's
choice.
In December 2003, when Tung flew
to Beijing to report his governing performance, Hu
urged Tung to connect with the people and listen
to their voices. Last December, when attending a
ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of Macau's
handover to China, Hu suggested again, pointedly,
that Tung improve his performance.
Under
this pressure from Beijing, urging the chief
executive in public to "find weaknesses in his
administration and improve governance", Tung, when
presenting his last policy address on January 12,
made an unprecedented and elaborate
"self-criticism". He also said he would do his
utmost to avoid bringing about troubles to the
country. This was the first-ever mea culpa
of its kind: no viceroy in the territory's
colonial era or chief executive of the Special
Administrative Region of Hong Kong ever made a
confession of failures in policy addresses.
Outsiders may observe that Tung, since the
second half of last year, was less visible at
public functions. Some important policies that he
used to oversee have been placed under the
supervision of some principal officials in his
administration. During the traditional Spring
Festival vacation, he declined to make an
appearance at several cocktail parties because of
what he termed "health concerns". His decreasingly
public appearances have fueled speculation over
his retreat from public life and the political
stage.
To make the development more
dramatic, Stanley Ho, chairman of the Real Estate
Developers Association (REDA) of Hong Kong and a
gambling tycoon, on February 17 openly encouraged
Tsang to run for the chief executive's post. Only
one day later, Hopewell Holdings Ltd chairman
Gordon Wu also voiced his support for Tsang in a
public event, adding that Tsang would be more
experienced than Tung. Attending a cocktail party
hosted on February 22 in celebration of the
Chinese New Year, Yang Wenchang, commissioner of
the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong, said
the central government would accept whoever most
Hong Kong people chose as their next chief
executive, no matter whether he or she hailed from
business circles or the civil service.
While some might translate Tung's expected
resignation as a move to vent discontent with
Beijing's undermining his authority, the central
government is said to have accepted his decision.
In the territory, however, all parties, including
the democratic parties, believe that this is not
the right time to undergo a change in leader.
Noticeably, nowhere in the Basic Law is
there mention of a mechanism for removing the
chief executive. So the rumor about Tung's bowing
out sounds as if Beijing is kicking him out of the
administration. If that is the case, the
legitimacy of China's much-touted "one country,
two systems" policy is undoubtedly open to
question.
Some democrats attribute the
problems that have confronted Hong Kong over the
past two years to its rigid institutions. Tung's
re-election to a second term is an illuminating
example: it is generally believed that Tung would
not have won his second term had it not been for
the 800-member election committee hand-picked by
the central government.
Other
controversial issues are the shortfall of directly
elected seats in the Legislative Council and the
indifference that Tung's administration shows to
the will of Hong Kong people. These democrats thus
point out that the right thing to do is to further
constitutional development, instead of bringing
about an illegitimate change in chief executive.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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