CY needs a good spin doctor
Updated: 2013-02-02 06:44
By Richard Harris(HK Edition)
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'I thought Leung could be like Moses, leading Hong Kong out of the Red Sea. Instead, we are still floating aimlessly on the Ocean." - Legislator Lam Tai-fai commented on Chief Executive CY Leung.
There's a saying in the British House of Commons that the opposition sits opposite you, but your enemies sit behind you. With Mr Lam behind you, who needs enemies? The Chief Executive's former ally, Lew Mon-hung, turned against him because he didn't get an Executive Council seat although judging from this behavior, Leung used sound judgement.
The Chief Executive has been under intense pressure from everybody since he was selected. Those who were against him as well as those who should be for him have shown no grace to help him govern Hong Kong. His alleged crimes (over which his opponents cut open a fresh onion and hold it close to their eyes) are pretty insignificant; a parking ticket at worst. Let him who is blameless, cast the first stone. The bottom line is that we have him for another four years. It's time we gave him a chance for the sake of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong politicians are rather poor and need to take a leaf out of the book of Western politicians - get popular! What Leung needs is a good spin doctor. This is someone to portray him in the best light, to spin his stories, to rebut the unfair criticisms and to divert the fair criticisms onto someone else's shoulders. Politics is for grown-ups and the Chief Executive's opponents deserve a little competition to see if they are big enough.
Popularity is fundamental to the political game. The first task of a spin doctor is to see where CY's power points are. There are a growing number of ordinary citizens of Hong Kong who are fed up with the parish-pump politics of both sides of the LegCo and are willing to give him a chance.
Dear Chief Executive, it is tough for your mealy-mouthed political opponents to attack a genuinely popular leader. Remember the words of General Foch in World War I: "My center is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I'm attacking". Get your retaliation in first. Your enemies will be confounded.
A spin doctor will make another key assessment. The Chief Executive is a mayor; at most a provincial governor. Almost nothing he can do locally will affect the mainland and running a prosperous and successful Hong Kong will benefit the whole country enormously.
Political capital is terribly elusive, but is critical to being able to perform your job. It is like money in the bank and CY has about as much as a Greek central banker. Above all, don't pick losing fights, such as Article 23 of the Basic Law or national education, which destroy political capital. Against that, building up political capital makes you more enemies, but the Chief Executive has no worries about that - he has enough already!
The second task is marketing. CY needs a good tag line (expensively researched) for his administration such as "The People of Hong Kong First" and about five shamelessly populist policies. CY must market himself by meeting the people. He must speak in English as well as Cantonese because he is the leader of one of the top three cities in the world. Take some lessons in currying popularity from London's mayor, Boris Johnson - that's your league and he is good.
His five policies are needed on Monday. They don't need years of study, focus groups or sign offs and they will evolve. They are easy hits, specific to the silent majority in Hong Kong and yet allow those outside to live with them.
Take the five as: Aggressively improve the environment; build a lot more middle to low-cost housing; tighten immigration policy before we choke; create new model social services to give better schooling to our young, proper pensions for our old, and improve health for those in the middle and: implement the long-agreed universal suffrage - it is of insignificance outside Hong Kong but popularist within.
Hong Kong and the mainland need a successful leader of what is one of the world's greatest cities. What is good for the silent majority of Hong Kong will be good for the economy, for the whole country and for the Chief Executive. We must now give him a chance. He must give himself a chance - I always fancied being a spin doctor.
The author is chief executive of Port Shelter Investment Management.
(HK Edition 02/02/2013 page1)