John Tsang needs to learn some civility.
John Tsang, the commerce secretary in Hong Kong and the WTO ministerial leader for the Hong Kong conference, finally granted public consultations on the WTO meetings. This only after a whole bunch of protestors held up signs during a meeting and made him look bad to his European friends. To shut them up, he promised to hold a mini-conference after the meeting, but then he booked it through a side-door.
After that embarrassment, he complained of the NGOs lack of "civility". "Civil society is supposed to be civil," he complained snottily over and over in a piece that aired on the news for about a week. Soon thereafter, he finally granted the NGOs two public consultations. But at the first one, when directly asked by an HKPA leader what the Hong Kong position on the WTO was, he said (and I quote now)
"Mr. Apo, with your knowledge and with a bit of research, you can figure it out yourself." He then went on to chastise Apo for "saying things without solid knowledged" and said that rather than slogans, that the meeting had been held ot discuss "concrete things."
Now, while Mr. Apo might have been a bit slogannish, I find it hard to blame to guy, especially when the government won't outright say, we SUPPORT FREE TRADE. In some ways it's OBVIOUS, but if it's so OBVIOUS, why are they so scared to come out and say it?
Moreover, Mr. Tsang's comments were on this side of JERKY and wavering on that side of, "ACCOUNTABILITY? WHAT? ME?" I don't know what government officials are paid for, even in Hong Kong, if they aren't suppose to tell its citizens what they are saying on their behalf. You can't just ignore citizens, even if they aren't direct constituents because they ask you questions you don't like. And so long as you're trying to maintain the pretense of being a democracy, you can't blow a question off by condescending like that. In a real democracy, citizens rely upon the government to make connections and research and make decisions for the people. It's their responsibility to understand matters which they have been expressly appointed to understand on the behalf of the people. Civil my butt - look it up Mr. Tsang.
After that embarrassment, he complained of the NGOs lack of "civility". "Civil society is supposed to be civil," he complained snottily over and over in a piece that aired on the news for about a week. Soon thereafter, he finally granted the NGOs two public consultations. But at the first one, when directly asked by an HKPA leader what the Hong Kong position on the WTO was, he said (and I quote now)
"Mr. Apo, with your knowledge and with a bit of research, you can figure it out yourself." He then went on to chastise Apo for "saying things without solid knowledged" and said that rather than slogans, that the meeting had been held ot discuss "concrete things."
Now, while Mr. Apo might have been a bit slogannish, I find it hard to blame to guy, especially when the government won't outright say, we SUPPORT FREE TRADE. In some ways it's OBVIOUS, but if it's so OBVIOUS, why are they so scared to come out and say it?
Moreover, Mr. Tsang's comments were on this side of JERKY and wavering on that side of, "ACCOUNTABILITY? WHAT? ME?" I don't know what government officials are paid for, even in Hong Kong, if they aren't suppose to tell its citizens what they are saying on their behalf. You can't just ignore citizens, even if they aren't direct constituents because they ask you questions you don't like. And so long as you're trying to maintain the pretense of being a democracy, you can't blow a question off by condescending like that. In a real democracy, citizens rely upon the government to make connections and research and make decisions for the people. It's their responsibility to understand matters which they have been expressly appointed to understand on the behalf of the people. Civil my butt - look it up Mr. Tsang.
posted by periwinky at 5:53 PM
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