Hong Kong's Failing Government System

At least the public is still confident at the judicial branch,

Hong Kong is probably the only territory in China that has judicial indepdence

Today's Hong Kong mingpao newspaper has an editoral on challenges Hong Kong's government is facing in governing Hong Kong. After reading this editoral, I feel like sharing some of my thought on the system.

Hong Kong's government system mirrors the US system in many ways. The executive branch and the legislative branch are completely seperated. The chief executive (CE) and its cabinet members are often not members of the legislative council. It is a system that works well in the US but is failing Hong Kong.

When the legislative branch and the executive branch are divided on an issue, the United States President has the political captial to negogiate with the Congress because the president is elected by the people of the US. On other side, Hong Kong's CE looks weak in front of the legislative council because it is elected by a non democratic electoral college. Unlike the US president, it is much more difficult for the CE to claim its own opinion represent the interest of the general public.

Another major failure of Hong Kong's current government system is on the selection of the cabinet members (In Hong Kong, the term "cabinet members" means the secrataries to the major departments and members of the executive council.). Most of the cabinet appointments in the US must be approved by the Congress. The appointees are also usually professionals that have tremendous experience that is related to the appointment. It is not uncommon for the president to select members from the opposing parties to be in the cabinet. This rigorous selection system doesn't exist in Hong Kong. The CE could form a very biased cabinet and only hear one sided opinion on many issues. This makes it very easy for the cabinet and the legislative council on a collision course in many issues.

Money is what keeps us together

There is an article in the Globe and Mail today that caught my interest. The title of the article is called "Harper's Fourth Pillar of Federalism."

The article basically discuss the current Primer Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, is strengthening the Canadian Federation using the new infrastructure funding within the economic stimulus package. The author labeled these infrastructure fundinsg as the "Fourth Pillar of Federalism." The other three pillars are the cash transfers, equalization and tax collection deals with the provinces.

It would be interesting to see if these infrastructure money will continue to flow from Ottawa to the provinces and cities in the next several years. I really doubt the cities have enough cash to maintain all these newly built infrastructure on the years to come.

Sometimes it really feels like the Canadian federation is not about common ideals or cultures. The sole reason of the federation's existence seems to be money. Money from Ottawa is what really keeps us together as Canadians. Maybe this is not a bad thing, it keep things realistic and peaceful.

If the Canadian federation is governed like China (where Beijing has the ultimate say in everything), I am sure Quebec would have left a long time ago.

Maybe I will write about China next time.

June 4 2009 in Le Quartier Chinois de Montréal

Like many other cities, Montreal had a small exhibition/memorial about the Tiananmen Square Incident. Because there is no Chinese consulate located in Montreal. The exhibition was located in China town.


It was a very small scale exhibition. Amnesty International also had a small booth next to the exhibition.

Unfortunately, it did not seem to attract the attention of many people passing by. However it is good to see some people do care even in a remote city like Montreal.