New ruling team on the right track
The fierce typhoon Vicente brought no casualties but a huge aftermath for Hong Kong’s new ruling team. The falling trees in the heart of tourist spots in Tsim Sha Tsui and the 150 tons of nontoxic polypropylene pellets spilled into the sea are good stress tests for their ability to mount prompt actions and for their contingency skills.
It was touching to see our self-directed cleanup campaign after news of the pellet spill was spread by a conservation group. It goes far beyond environmental consciousness among the volunteers who collected the tiny pellets on beaches under the scorching heat. It is our love for our home that inspired more and more volunteers to pitch in after extensive media reporting about the clean-up.
It has also been a rewarding week for the new governing team, in its sixth week since taking office. Rocked by scandals and controversies from the day of its inauguration, the new government was caught off guard and preoccupied with defusing the mounting political heat.
The plastic pellet spill has been handled in an aggressive and positive manner. A potential crisis was dispersed and averted. People are glad to see our new ruling team gaining momentum and confidence and walking on the right track.
During the short overseas break by our new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, his ruling team acted promptly and tactfully. The only flaw in handling this plastic pellet spill was its timing. With hind sight, the government could have acted more swiftly if the environmental chief and health chief had paid more heed to the pellet spill incident, once they learned of its outbreak. Then the public would have been informed much earlier about the incident. Free flow of information is critical for resolving crises, both for the government and the community.
Public worries at once erupted over possible contamination in the food supply, destruction of a valuable food resource and fears over the longterm ecological impact once the outbreak was reported. It was wise for the government to bring forth the whole picture to the public and give as honest an account as possible at the time. It was equally important for the officials lining up food safety experts, biochemical specialists and environmentalists to inform the public about the pellet pollution. Eventually it dampened the upsurge of public fears and averted a territorywide public panic.
The stress test over the pellet spill incident had not been as damaging for the new ruling team at this sensitive but delicate timing. Fortunately, it is far from a crisis and cannot evolve into a crisis without the political dimension. As most political parties are too preoccupied with electioneering for the September Legislative Council polling, officials faced only scattered political clamoring. The stress test was the lack of any significant political factor emerging but of racing against time to clean up the spill.
The floating pellets polluted fish farms and acquiculture ponds, but not extensively. Beaches were stained by the massive spill which scattered along the long coastline and numerous small sparsely-populated islands in the city. It was a multi-faceted matter that demanded well-coordinated, cross-bureau and collaborative efforts among the governing team. Actions were launched on several tiers and different fronts, collecting fish samples from sea and culture farms for testing, launching a clean-up campaign, informing the public, giving relief for affected fisheries interests, assessing long-term ecological impact, studying future use of the collected pellets and studying legal action over liabilities and compensation.
It is uplifting to see the ruling team acting promptly by using discretionary power to hand out relief for the affected fisheries’ interests. Despite criticism over the deployment of disciplined forces and flying services department personnel for the clean-up operation, the government had taken the lead in this remedial campaign to restore our waters and beaches.
It may be too flattering to declare the new governing team as demonstrating a new mindset. But it has indeed departed from ineffectual procrastination to employ due procedures showing affirmative evidence of a change in direction. Instead of taking days to get a clear picture over relief efforts, clean-up costs and studying legal liabilities or seeking civil action to sue for compensation, the government led by the Chief Secretary has indeed done a good job. It will be desirable for the government to revamp the contingency mechanisms and warning system to strengthen our protection of Hong Kong’s marine ecology.