Learn Mandarin online - Take pride in efficient civil service

Opinion / Liang Hongfu

Take pride in efficient civil service
By Hong Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-20 06:37

A politically neutral civil service has always been regarded as the
bedrock of Hong Kong society. In times of change and uncertainty, Hong
Kong people can draw comfort and reassurance from an administrative
machinery that will remain unclogged and untainted by political
favouritism.

It is often said that a strong and relatively clean bureaucracy has
largely shielded Japan from the well-documented vagaries of the country's
politicians. In Britain, political excesses have often been subtly
neutralized by the faceless bureaucrats of Whitehall.

The Hong Kong civil service is largely based on the British model. Its
huge reputation for efficiency and integrity is not derived from
political passion, but rather from the quality of the people and the
discipline of the system.

Generous terms of employment, comparable to the best in the private
sector, are offered to attract the best and brightest into the civil
service. New recruits will learn to follow the procedures and adhere to
the discipline dictated by an administrative system steeped in tradition
and protocol.

Outsiders may criticize the system for its apparent rigidity. They may
take pleasure in deriding the system's prescribed formalities. By doing
so, they risk undermining the core values of a system that underlines the
good governance which has been taken for granted by Hong Kong people.

Faithful to the principle established under such a system, Hong Kong's
senior civil servants may give the impression of being dispassionate and,
at times, arrogant. Such are the typical traits of a professional
administrator.

This has become a problem only because too many civil servants in the
past were inappropriately thrust into the public limelight too often to
explain government policies and justify unpopular actions deemed
necessary by the chief executive in council. Civil servants are usually
ill equipped to be public communicators. Some civil servants, with a
certain degree of justification, may consider such tasks to be beneath
them.

To maintain the integrity of the civil service, the Hong Kong government
must consider with great reservation the proposal allowing civil servants
to take leave to pursue a temporary career in politics as elected
officials. The idea is to boost support for the government in the
legislature and in other grass-roots agencies and organizations.

But such benefits are far from assured. Civil servants, earnest they may
be, have never had any training in the art of crowd-pleasing and
vote-getting. With the exception of perhaps Chief Executive Donald Tsang,
who rose through the ranks, no government official in Hong Kong has ever
won public support based on personal charisma.

When forced by circumstance to engage in public debates, quite a few
senior government officials come across as being excessively preachy and
condescending. The chances of them winning elected office seem remote.

But the potential damage a proposal like this could do not just to the
public image of the civil service but to the very foundation of the
entire establishment should give the government pause for thought.
Acceptance of the proposal is tantamount to revoking the basic principle
of neutrality that has been held sacrosanct by the Hong Kong civil
service from the day it was founded. This certainly is not something that
one would tamper with lightly under any circumstances.

Destroying this core value would invariably open the civil service of
Hong Kong to all kinds of abuse. Political expedience would take
precedent over established practices and procedures. Meanwhile, any
inhibitions about cultivating or dispensing political favours, which are
just other forms of corruption, at the expense of public interest would
be removed.

At a time when Hong Kong's relevance to China's economic growth is
brought into question, there is every reason for the Hong Kong government
to preserve and strengthen the established institutions that have
contributed so much to Hong Kong's past economic and social progress. The
efficient civil service is the pride of Hong Kong. Any suggestion that
could undermine its integrity must be rejected.

Email: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/20/2006 page4)

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