Beijing needs to clean-up after Henry Tang's repeat indiscretions

Goodbye Henry. My turn now.

Media exposes Henry Tang's illegal underground structures
The media scrum was unprecedented. Cameramen perched atop six cranes hired for the purpose to beam live footage of Henry Tang's twin properties in Kowloon Tong on primetime TV newscasts. 
You could have easily assumed a millionaire family was mass-murdered or a special forces raid was in progress against a terrorist bomb-making cell.


It was all far more trivial. Five buildings department inspectors were confirming the vast illegal structure constructed without planning permission under candidate Tang's twin luxury homes. He had not declared this despite an executive order to Exco members. When caught after denials and evasions, he blamed it all on his wife.

Henry's wine cellar
below swimming pool


Henry Tang should withdraw from the chief executive race or be ordered to do so. The bosses in Beijing know he has lost public trust. He has used his long-suffering wife twice to take the heat off him. He has no moral authority to lead Hong Kong.

Beijing’s carefully choreographed opera for the quasi-election process has collapsed so fast and so critically close to the end-game. There is barely ten days left for the HK-Macau Affairs Office to quick-fix this crisis. The puppeteer has to pull the strings for the DAB, the HK Federation of Trade Unions and other allies to cast their nominations and votes to a revised script. But for which candidate?

The business lobby within the 1,200 electoral college is stymied. Tycoons do not want CY Leung but voting for the third candidate Albert Ho of the Democratic Party is a waste as Beijing won’t even allow leading Democrats travel access into the mainland!

Beijing’s mantra of “preserving the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong” - which they adopted as the narrative from the British administration, is lacking a stage prop. The CE quasi-election is in real danger of degenerating into pure farce.

Regina Ip’s golden moment? Regina Ip, infamous for trying to ram through the flawed Article 23 Security Bill in 2003, as secretary for security, now leads the New People’s Party. She was elected to the Legislative Council in 2008. She declared her interest to run for chief executive before but withdrew when she could not secure the minimal 150 nominations.

Regina hopes the business lobby may swing behind her as the de-facto alternative to CY Leung. Despite a supportive response from her party caucus last night, she is still dithering, unsure if at this late stage she can secure 150 nominations or have time to pitch for votes from the Election Committee. She will need momentum which only a nod from Beijing can energize. She is viewed a ‘neutral’ candidate not beholden either to the business lobby or the leftists. She is well regarded by civil servants who fear the whip of CY Leung.


Regina Ip at the start of the CE race described both Henry Tang and CY Leung as lacking the necessary "leadership qualities, competence and stamina" for the top job. She had received feelers from both camps for the position of chief secretary in the civil service. She declared she would not serve in an administration of either candidate.

Why not CY Leung?  
The government’s leak of the 10-year old conflict of interest issue on the West Kowloon Arts Centre design selection apart, CY Leung has conducted a dignified campaign on his own. No one in the HK administration has explained why it was necessary to exhume this 10-year old case at this time. It could have just ignored the East Week report instead of responding to it in the middle of the CE race.
 
CY is neither a stooge of the business lobby nor leftwing ideologues, although his strident anti-British sentiment is well known. Beijing has long identified him as a patriot in HK. He was given very senior responsibility in drafting the Basic Law and as convenor of the post-1997 Exco since.

He knows how the HK government operates and why it has been dysfunctional the last 14 years. He understands the festering issues left unresolved and sympathizes with the bottom rung of society. He knows the tricks of the property lobby only too well and they fear him for that. He has been consistently preferred by a wide margin on all the public polls.

Perhaps it is in CY’s consistently independent streak that Beijing has misgivings. The minders at the HK-Macau Affairs Office and the Central Government Liaison Office are relaxed about the vacuity of candidate Tang. He just coasts along and is happy to follow any path shown. Candidate CY Leung has a mind of his own. He thinks. Such men are dangerous?

ENDS