Is Henry Tang, CY Leung or Regina Ip right for CE leadership of Hong Kong?

Two HK Executive Council seniors, Henry Tang and C Y Leung resigned their posts to flag their 'intention to stand' for Chief Executive of the HK Special Administrative Region.

Henry drove no memorable
policy initiatives in 10 years

CY Leung is a better bet

'Flip-Flop' Rita Fan, former President of the Legislative Council and current HK delegate to the National People's Congress, endorsed Henry Tang's candidacy, then said she may run for CE herself, before finally declaring she is past it at 66 years.

Regina re-inventing herself after Article 23 fiasco

Poised to join the two prospects is former Secretary for Security, now chair of the New People's Party and legislator, Regina Ip. Many believe Regina has her sights on the 2017 CE election but may have been encouraged by Beijing's unusual reticence, to signal her availability.  


None of the three have formally filed their papers for the Chief Executive post yet. Their candidacy for election depends on securing a minimal threshold of support from an Electoral College of 1,200 whose identity will only be known in December.  


Beijing has not given the nod to any of the hopefuls so far. That has made the public posturing a circus of confused horses. The ring master is missing. Why? Perhaps the odd circumstances of the three contenders may give a clue:


Tang's wife forgives. No comment on illegitimate child

Three from same camp vie for Chief Executive 
in 2012




Given Hong Kong's nosy and intrusive press, insinuations of Henry's affair with a senior aide and other ladies surfaced. There were rumours of a child out of wedlock. Henry was advised by his PR minders to call a press conference with his wife by his side. The dutiful wife smiled bravely. Henry was contrite.


Millionaires in Hong Kong have never been starved of female company. Nobody else bothers. The PR exercise came across as unnecessary, trivial and distracting. The important question is whether Henry is the right person for the CE job?


The attempt at public confession has only put Henry under a stubborn cloud of doubt as he dodges reporters' questions of a child by the other woman. Does this say anything about Henry Tang's suitability for Chief Executive? Is it relevant at all?


Henry has distinguished himself in ten years of public service by being remembered for nothing of any significance apart from removing the tax on wine. In one sense that gives comfort to Beijing. He will not initiate or champion matters of public policy on his own. He will do as he is told.


Despite that Beijing may yet look beyond Henry Tang - if only to have a squeaky-clean CE untainted by extra-marital affairs and hounded by a paparazzi press which refuses to let go. 


Given a choice, the property tycoons whom Beijing defers to, would like Tang to be the next CE. No less than 'superman' Li Ka-shing has already endorsed Henry publicly.


CY Leung's shares shrink 90% in DTZ 


CY Leung faces a paper loss of near HK$300 million on his shares in listed DTZ Holdings Plc. He injected his real estate consultancy CY Leung & Co into the larger London listed DTZ in 1999, following that with more investment in DTZ stock in 2006 and 2009, to become one of its four largest shareholders - which got him a seat on the parent board and chairmanship of DTZ Asia-Pacific.


His shareholding was worth HK$290 million in 2007. DTZ shares from their peak in 2006 of 835 pence per share have plunged to 3 pence recently. Its latest financial position shows liabilities of HK$783 million with an alarming HK$1.1 billion in negative tangible asset value and outstanding short and long-term bank debt of more than HK$1.3 billion. DTZ's weighting in USA real estate and aggressive debt-financed acquisitions of European companies has left it badly exposed in the global downturn.


In a city which prides itself on tycoons who ride business cycles with sang-froid, this misadventure comes at the worst possible time for CY Leung. When asked about the DTZ, Leung repeated the investment caveat to reporters that shares go up and come down. He assured them he is not in financial trouble.


Hong Kong is looking for confident leadership to steer it through looming global recession and policy muddles in public housing, education, inflation, unemployment and a de-stabilizing wealth gap.


Is he a safe pair of hands? This twist of the DTZ may lose CY Leung points with both Beijing and the property tycoons stuffed into the Election Committee.


Regina Ip waits to be rewarded for loyalty


No one can doubt Regina Ip's doughty loyalty as Secretary for Security under Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's first CE. She threatened, brow-beat and derided anyone who dared point out the many flaws of the hastily drafted Article 23 Security Bill.


She tried to bulldoze the Article 23 Bill through LegCo despite representations from civic society, professional bodies, media associations, journalists, lawyers and chambers of commerce. 

Popular with cartoonists

Regina Ip was HK's equivalent of  'Good Soldier Schweik' - the absurdly comic hero of the novel of the First World War in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia. Schweik personified the dilemma of citizens involved in a conflict they did not understand on behalf of a country they owed no loyalty to. His immediate, unthinking implementation of any and every order from superiors, helped undermine authority at every turn.




Hong Kong's normally staid citizenry poured out of their homes on a hot July afternoon in 2003 to flood the streets from Victoria Park to the Government Offices in Central for six hours of massive, peaceful and orderly protest against the threat to their freedoms of press, assembly and right to protest. 

HK citizens were not amused

Hong Kong has never before nor since witnessed such a powerful, disciplined display of public anger.

The shock to Beijing eventually cost Tung Chee-hwa his job. Regina Ip, her credibility in tatters, resigned to go on a study sabbatical to the US. The Bill itself was abandoned at speed. None of the establishment figures nor the pro-Beijing legislators primed to pass the Article 23 Bill, rushed to her defence. They threw her to the wolves and fled the scene. 


Since that singular lesson not to underestimate the resolve of Hong Kong residents, Beijing has been careful to gauge the public mood. It has opted for a softer touch rather than ramming through ideological agendas. That may explain the current 'wait-and-see' on the CE candidates.


Beijing continues its steady, low-key placement of loyalists in the civil service and academic institutions. 'Golden Bauhinia' medals (for distinguished public service) are pinned annually on obscure folk from previously 'underground fronts' whom most Hong Kong residents have never heard of, which attracts as much derision locally as the Confucian Prize introduced to rival the Nobel Prize.


Regina Ip is reinventing herself as a people's champion. She chairs the Savantas Institute which studies policy issues on democratic development and heads the New People's Party which garnered 4 seats in the recent District Council elections where the Democratic camp suffered a drubbing.


She stoked the anxiety of HK residents about a flood of immigrants leaving low-paid (below HK's own minimum wage) maid's jobs to compete with locals for regular employment - after a 25-year term domestic worker sought a Court ruling on right of abode.


Regina has recently given condescending advice to the Democratic camp not to stand up for moral causes like right of abode for maids and anti-racist legislation.


Regina Ip's opportunistic talent was in full display when she took off like a jack rabbit to lobby the National People's Congress in Beijing to deny right of abode to domestic helpers - even before HK Courts could hear the test case. 


As a former Principal Official of the HK Government and current legislator, she is pledged to uphold the rule of law and Hong Kong's unique Special Administrative Region status. She undermines both in her unseemly haste to parade her 'loyalty' to Beijing. She waits to be rewarded.


There have been trial balloons floated by Beijing compatriots in Hong Kong for the re-introduction of the reviled Article 23 Security Bill. That may well be a hidden condition of the appointment of the next CE. Regina Ip is eminently qualified for a repeat performance, if called upon. Beijing should be wary.


Most important job not for the most competent


The lack of universal suffrage in choosing a leader on merit, leaves the SAR poorly prepared to face the economic tsunami ahead. In boom times that may not matter but Hong Kong has already lost 14 years through limp leadership on fundamental issues. It cannot waste another five years.


Of the three hopefuls, CY Leung seems at least to have considered views on overdue policy matters. He is known to be action-oriented. The worst possible outcome in the current scenario, is for Regina Ip to slide in by default.


ENDS

Metro newspapers scramble to diversify revenues as business model crashes

Print advertising continues to dominate revenue share at most newspapers. There is little annual growth in mainstay print revenues while digital revenues (averaging 8-10% at most press currently) are growing robustly across other promotion channels.


Janet L Robinson, President & CEO of the New York Times Co. articulated the scramble to find new revenue sources recently:
"The rethinking of our business models has been driven by the desire to achieve additional revenue diversity to make us less susceptible to the inevitable economic cycles."


Robinson seems unduly bothered by the boom-bust paradigm when print, in reality, is being disconnected steadily from advertising budgets irrespective of economic cycle.


One silver lining for NYT is the successful paid conversion of the free digital content. Departing digital chief, Martin Nisenholz (retiring Dec 2011) added revenue from a loyal audience without loss of visitors. 


Nisenholz created a metered paywall which kicks in after a certain level of access frequency. It does not stop daily accesses. It does not inconvenience news skimmers.


L Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal and founder of the Journalism Online Press+ Service explains why: "Until recently, technology was limited. Publishers had to choose either a paywall where everyone must pay, or be fully free. New technology lets publishers charge only their most engaged readers who value unlimited access."


Crovitz makes the point that the marketplace for news is very crowded and "no publication has a monogamous relationship with its readers." A total block on unpaid access will only destroy a newspaper's digital profile and future.


Cities - where newspapers prospered (till now)


Metropolitan cities have anchored profitable newspapers for two centuries. Cities are magnets that aggregate affluent consumers. Marketers invested heavily in advertising to city residents. Metro newspapers rode the gravy train.


That formula has come apart globally, undone by next generation 'digital natives' fully on Internet and mobile channels. The urban wealth is still in the city but marketers by-pass newspapers to connect these digital consumers.


Newspaper single-copy sales have tanked. Advertisers are migrating to new platforms where the youth congregate. 


The deflating twin ballasts of affluent readers and big-budget advertisers, sink top and bottom lines of metro newspapers. There is little chicanery left to play.


Consumer marketing is also shifting to semi-urban communities for expansion beyond the overworked metro markets. This trend is most pronounced in India, The Philippines and Indonesia.

As metropolitan newspapers stretch to explore growth in semi-urban space, they discover their product, cover price, overheads and city habits inappropriate for ex-metro markets. 


Community newspapers operate on an entirely different logic of local relationships, neighbourhood content, meagre advertising revenues, low-cost production and tight geographic distribution.

Community press has to live on the surplus from cover-price - the opposite of metro strategy which is to under-price product to encourage copy sales - to justify premium advertising rates. Advertising revenues used to make up the cover-price deficit comfortably.

City newspapers need radical re-structuring to be able to survive in community newspaper habitats. Successful transitioning from metro to community space is rare. Community press has to build from the ground up, in the right context of service and relationships.


Every trick to pump up the numbers


Annual circulation growth was the lever for ratcheting advertising rates. It was a simple formula: declare an annual percentage increase in copy sales and jump advertising rates. 


Where you can get away with it, add on a percentage for annual cost inflation too! A small increase in rates translates to magnified gross revenues and profits. What a happy way to run a business! Especially as the annual demographic readership increase came so predictably.


Things have not been so easy since the Internet disrupted information flows from the mid-90s. Consumers could receive real-time news alerts free through e-mail portals and mobile service providers. Smartphones and free Internet search connected content to consumers, independent of newspapers.


The newspaper industry responded with cut-price subscriptions and bulk sales in cahoots with complicit distribution agents, to game circulation audits. It also dumped discounted bulk on schools, clubs, airlines and hotels, to camouflage the hollowing-out of paid readership.


The fakery could not be sustained. Advertisers eventually twigged that the print channel had stopped growing. 


Marketers instinctively bail out of any channel in terminal decline. 
And that is exactly what they are doing in a measured way, as they experiment with videos, blogs and social networks beyond print. 


Meanwhile, they depress the value of the print channel with a vengeance - through ruthless discounting.


Free 'commuter' papers mushroomed in the hope of staking a claim for marketing dollars, as paid papers stalled.

Paid papers are left with no choice but to curtail spurious bulk distribution and to increase cover price to close the deficit, as print advertising revenues continue to decline.


The game is up. What to do with legacy cost structures?


Boom times allowed excess headcount, inflated salaries, bonuses and perks. It led to laxity of management, reduced productivity and spawned high levels of waste in all aspects of the business. Bad practices became sacred cows of prerogative and privilege.


The newspaper industry has to adjust to shrinking advertising and circulation revenues. It cannot continue to shoulder its legacy cost burden and live on hope for the next boom. 


Resistance to change from management is high - especially when it means reducing headcount (territorial fiefdoms), pay and perks for those that survive the cull. The culling usually starts at the commercial end of the business where the numbers talk loudest.


Given the space surrendered to wire service copy for national, international, entertainment and sports content, the productivity of editorial contribution has been declining across the industry for decades. High-cost, high-headcount manpower with sharply reduced productivity is unsustainable. Especially when the business model itself is broken.


The chronic similarity of content across newspapers because of heavy dependence on often common syndicated wire stories, is another source of irritation for the paying public.


The trimming of editorial waste is resisted to the bitter end. By the time the cost tailors arrive at the editorial door, it is almost too late. That scenario has looped repeatedly in the US newspaper industry like a slow-motion train wreck. When editorial lay-offs are finally announced, closure is usually one short step behind.


Re-think content strategy & business model


Abundant digital free news forces print media to re-define value. News is already in the public domain by the time the papers arrive. 


Quality press has to guide citizens through the sheer density of political and corporate 'noise' with incisive analysis, strong opinion and pointed commentary.  "He-said/she-said" reporting is useless. Where facts are clear, the newspaper has a duty to take a stand for its readers on matters of public interest.


The mushy equivalence of much broadsheet reporting leaves readers lost for what is right. It fails citizens where disinformation and political spin is rampant. "Neutrality" allows sponsored spin-masters (commercial & political) to dominate public discourse. That is unhelpful to citizens.

Quality press has to be more than a shovel-dump for vested interests. It is false modesty for newspapers to be inhibited about blowing the whistle on venal politicians and shady businessmen.


To assume that position requires solid research, mastery of subject, integrity and clarity of thinking. Without intellectual heft and professional integrity, press cannot stake a leadership role in the multimedia landscape. It is already losing relevance fast.

There are punchy blogs and whistle-blower sites filling the gap left by mainstream newspapers. The spikes in web traffic during political crises and national elections is a clear indication of the failure of mainstream press to fulfil its duty to citizens. 


The advertising rates should reflect a premium for quality reach. It is not about circulation numbers and cost-per-thousand anymore. It is about premium, targeted audiences.


Much of the fluff sections that newspapers padded on during the boom times have to be re-assessed for reader and advertiser value. The fluff can be catered to far more cheaply on the website to save tonnes of wasted newsprint.

Who owns the Press calls the tune


The stark reality of press systems globally reverts to the basic ownership question. Does the State own it? Is it a publicly listed business expected to deliver endless profit growth? Is it a family-owned property? What is the motivation of the owner/s?


In which ownership context is the interests of citizens best served?


The Murdoch organization is perhaps the best cure for liberal idealists. It is a huge multinational which is publicly listed. The Murdoch family with only 12% shareholding manages to control 40% of the votes through a dual class share mechanism. 


In its UK tabloid properties, a culture of illegal phone hacking to get "exclusives" was standard practice. Mr Murdoch has long traded his press influence to bend political parties to exempt him from cross-media ownership rules on three continents. 


He helped channel publicity according to which party seeking election would co-operate with his 'to-do' list. 


He surrendered his Australian citizenship to become a broadcast network owner in the USA. His Fox Network is rabidly right-wing and highly profitable. As one of his managing directors observed "People are like sheep. Let's shear them."


Citizens have to challenge vested-interest control of media, whether political or commercial. Societies get the government and the press they deserve.


Are the benchmarks of press journalism falling?


The default position in reporting has sunk to picking up press releases and handouts and presenting them with the reporter's by-line. In many newspapers around the world now the public relations industry is busy feeding reporters  self-serving content. It is a shameful situation getting worse by the day. It shreds the credibility of press even more.


The recruitment, training and supervision of reporters seems to be a forgotten mission. The reporting pool has become a revolving door of self-promoters working their way to cushy public relations jobs after garnering sufficient by-lines.


How can press secure the domain expertise needed to respond real time to economic, political, health, education, environment and security issues? This expertise is more likely to be found at universities, research labs and think tanks than in newsrooms.


The organizational re-configuration that newspapers need, must include a bench of 'domain experts on tap', for quick comment and analysis of breaking news like the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the Bangkok floods, the SARS epidemic and the Arab Spring. They do not need to be full-time staffers.


The discussion is about quality press and the thinking citizen who expects to be informed about the issues that matter. That narrows readership appeal to a moneyed elite at the top of the social pyramid with the luxury of time to read. 


The other market alternative is to be a free tabloid with vacuous social gossip, violence, gore, sex and crime as opium for the masses. That may just allow a survival existence through low grade advertising and a skeleton staff. 


I cannot think of many professionals who would want to enter that bog by choice.


ENDS

Is race discrimination creeping into Hong Kong's Immigration process?

Pepito Mamaril, a 60-year old Filipino man, flew into Hong Kong on 2nd November to mourn the death and attend the wake of his sister-in-law. For an already emotionally fraught visit, what happened next was both traumatic and unnecessary.


The old man was detained in an Immigration cell for hours and deported the same evening to Manila. The grieving Pepito Mamaril was doubly distressed by being treated as a criminal. Hong Kong Immigration is not obliged to give reasons for its decisions. 


Racial discrimination on the streets is one thing. Having that infect official discharge of duty by the uniformed services raises serious questions about where we're heading as a society. Hong Kong has always prided itself on strict observance of the letter and spirit of the law. 


Pepito was not here to join anti-Beijing rallies or to participate in a Falun Gong collective breathing exercise. Philippine nationals are usually granted a 14-day visa free stay in Hong Kong.


HK Immigration declared that Pepito "did not have a valid reason to be granted an entry visa". The 500 Peso (HK$90) cash that Pepito had was also inadequate for his stay in Hong Kong. 


All of those assessments were made by immigration officers despite Pepito's niece Mary Ann (daughter of the deceased) faxing through the death certificate of her mum and rushing to Chek Lap Kok to provide surety for his care and return. 


If the situation were reversed, and a Hong Kong man was refused entry into Manila to attend the funeral of his close relative, one can imagine the outraged calls to the HK Government and the China Embassy to remonstrate with the Philippine authorities for insensitive high-handedness.


The farce was further compounded by an immigration officer speaking on the phone to Pepito's older brother (husband of the deceased), a HK permanent resident, in Cantonese, to which the hapless man at the other end could not respond. 


Was the officer incapable of seeking clarification in English? If not, what is he doing in a public service whose role is to process international visitors? What was the point of querying a Filipino in Cantonese? 


To top it all, the final official justification was a declaration of classic bureaucratese: "The deportation order has already been made. This is just a one-off. If your uncle wants to come back, he can always come back to Hong Kong." 


To which Mary Ann's sad riposte was "I've only got one mother to bury". She lamented that her uncle was the closest friend her mother had on her father's side of the family and the only one who could make it to HK for the funeral. 


HK Immigration made sure he didn't.


Ethnic minorities constitute 5% of HK residents



Hong Kong is a city of 7 million, 95% of whom are ethnic Chinese. The minority 5% comprise Europeans, South & South East Asians and about 250,000 domestic helpers (largely Filipinas & Indonesians). 


Hong Kong has never been known for crass and overt racism. If at all, it is subtle. It takes the form of some landlords denying people of dark skin housing, some taxi drivers refusing to take such passengers and refusal to employ non-Chinese in white collar jobs for which they are eminently qualified or in under-paying them. 


It shows at restaurants where a family sits to lunch excluding the domestic helper who has to manage unruly children but is not invited to share the communal meal.



Domestic helpers do all the trashy tasks at home and clean-up after children and adults alike. They are considered inferior. They have no fixed hours of work. The children take on the haughty attitudes of the parents and have them at their beck and call. This seems a common phenomenon in Malaysia and Singapore too where foreign domestics with little legal protection have to earn a living.



Hong Kong's police and immigration officers are by and large respected for their courtesy, helpfulness and correct adherence to process. There is never an instance of having to bribe them for facilitation of their duties which is endemic in Indonesia, The Philippines and all the South Asian countries.


It is therefore all the more worrying that this high standard of professional conduct by the uniformed services may be eroding.


Economic Woes and 'Right of Abode' scare


Recently there has been heightened public anxiety about the prospect of 'right-of-abode' being extended to domestic helpers who were previously excluded from such benefits despite meeting the 7-year residency window. Domestic helpers are also excluded from HK's minimum wage law.


Crafty politicians jumped on a public anxious about economic contraction and high inflation, to scare-monger shamelessly. There is no faster way to project political credentials than by frightening locals about the threat of job losses and school and hospital facilities being swamped by an immigrant horde waiting at the gates. It is a well proven trick practised by cynical politicians everywhere.


The HK government provided no leadership in clarifying the administrative tools already available to the Immigration Department to control permanent residency on several criteria. It allowed disinformation to reach hysterical levels and for opportunistic politicians to fuel paranoia. 


It suited the HK government and pro-Beijing compatriots that the Civic Party and Democrats sympathetic to the legal challenge were politically disadvantaged before the imminent District Council elections.


Regina Ip, who peddled the seriously flawed Article 23 Security Bill under the Tung Chee-hwa administration, made a dramatic visit to Beijing to lobby the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress to rule on the right of abode question raised by domestic helper Evangeline Vallejos, who sought a review having lived continuously in HK for 25 years.


Evangeline Vallejos was granted leave to apply for right of abode by Hong Kong's Court of First Instance which held that the Immigration Ordinance which excludes domestic helpers is illegal as it contradicts the Basic Law, HK's mini-constitution, which makes no such discriminatory provision. 


The government expressed disappointment and is appealing the High Court's decision. It has declared that after it exhausts all avenues within the HK Justice system, it can ask Beijing to rubber stamp what it wants. It has done that before. Party bosses in Beijing have no problem with that.


The DAB (Democratic Alliance for the Betterment & Progress of Hong Kong) put it about that if 125,000 eligible domestics were granted Right of Abode, unemployment would soar from 3.5% to 7% and if spouses were allowed in, it would rocket to 10%.


HK Govt passes token Race Bill & exempts itself


Hong Kong is obliged by China's ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) to introduce specific legislation to curtail racial discrimination.


The UN Committee on Economic, Social & Political Rights has criticized Hong Kong's lack of legislation prohibiting racial discrimination in the private sector, as a breach of its obligations.


After a decade of laggardly discussion in the Legislative Council, the government finally introduced a Race Discriminatory Ordinance in July 2008 which came into effect in 2009.


It excludes new immigrants from the mainland and exempts the administration itself from the provisions of its own law designed to criminalize race discrimination!


The government maintains that as mainland immigrants are Han Chinese, the same as HK residents, they cannot technically suffer race discrimination. That can only be classed as 'social' discrimination which is outside the definition of the new law.


The most virulent discrimination visited on any group by HK society is on mainland immigrants in housing, schools, hospitals, employment and through exclusion from social interaction. 


These are the voiceless poor. China's new rich can buy their way past HK's underclass without depending on local goodwill.


By excluding new mainland immigrants from anti-discrimination protection, the HK government allows the continuation of such uncivil treatment. It defeats the intent of the law. It makes a mockery of calls for 'patriotic' education by sycophantic politicians.


And the logic for the administration exempting itself from the law is to prevent 'frivolous claims' for compensation from minorities seeking to 'make money' by suing the government for alleged discrimination! 


All of which sums up the lackadaisical attitude of the HK administration about ethnic and social discrimination in Asia's 'World City'. 


Race prejudice reinforced at home & in Kindergarten


Earlier this year the Equal Opportunities Commission commissioned the HK Institute of Vocational Education to undertake a survey of the very young.


152 youngsters aged between 3-6 years were shown pictures of dark skinned, Chinese and Caucasian adults and asked for their responses on a range of perceived attributes.


Professor Wong Wan-chi of the department of educational psychology of the Chinese University of HK was alarmed at the results: "Children usually do not by nature have discriminatory attitudes at an early age. It is learned. It has to do with what they pick up from adults."


This points to a critical need for anti-race discrimination education of the public and formalized programmes in schools - neither of which is on the cards in Asia's World City.


ENDS