Opposition to creating a ‘metropolis’ in Hong Kong’s Lantau must be heard
Tom Yam says public opinion on the contentious HK$400 billion Lantau new town plan must be separately analysed and publicised, and not lumped with general 2030 Plus concepts, as Hong Kong’s taxpayers deserve more transparency
The Hong Kong government has been putting on performances called “public consultations” for years. These costly road shows are increasingly seen by the people as pro forma exercises, as many believe neither the methodology nor the results makes any difference to government decision-making.
Hong Kong people, whose taxes pay for public consultations, deserve more transparency, especially where projects will incur major capital investment.
The choreography of consultations generally works like this: public support for long-term, benign concepts is publicised, while opposition to near-term, specific and controversial projects is downplayed or ignored. Public support for the former is then extended to cover the latter. Yet, it is these specific projects that have huge long-term implications. For example, in the 2011 consultation on strategic land supply, the government claimed “broad support for the six-pronged approach for enhancing land supply”, omitting the fact of broad opposition to the approach of land reclamation as one of the six prongs.
