On Second Thought: Hong Kong becomes bogged down in a culture of suspicion
Leung Chun-ying must also share some blame for the phenomenon
People have been predicting "the death of Hong Kong" since the infamous cover story published in magazine 20 years ago warning that the prosperous days of the city would be over after the 1997 handover.
To this day, the city is still very much alive and kicking and, one must say, getting better and better at harassing and abusing visitors, as can be seen from recent protests against parallel-goods trading.
But if you are looking for signs of Hong Kong's troubles or sources of its people's grievances, they are to be found everywhere in the news - the city is becoming increasingly unaffordable; its retail sales have plunged by the biggest margin since the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2003; and it now ranks 70th in quality of living, way behind rival Singapore.
"Decline" may be too strong a word. How many declining cities can boast an annual surplus of more than HK$60 billion? But there is an emerging sense of impending doom about Hong Kong's future and its capacity to prosper in the fiercely competitive global marketplace.
The fear is not groundless. The city has been plagued by a culture of suspicion that divides its people into polar opposites and sometimes blinds them to common sense.
The distrust of government and authority is fuelled by a proudly populist, openly anti-government and scandal-driven media obsessed with exposing the feet of clay of the powerful and the well-connected. To them, Hong Kong is one vast conspiracy to make the lives of the ordinary people miserable. As part of this conspiracy, all public figures and senior government officials are deemed fair game. At the first hint of wrongdoing, they will be put on "trial" outside court and declared guilty before proven innocent.
The rabid tabloid media is a natural ally of pan-democrats who too often see politics as a zero-sum game in which every gain the government makes is their loss.
But should the government be held partly responsible for the widespread unease with power and mistrust of authority in our society? Of course. Just as science demands unrelenting scepticism about purported facts and theories, effective government requires people to have faith that their leaders have no ulterior motives.
Public administration therefore requires a moral character that works on the basis of trust. That is exactly why people who hate Leung Chun-ying and cannot stand having him in power have been trying so hard to raise doubts about his integrity. That Leung has not done enough to restore faith and earn the trust of Hongkongers must be regarded as one of the major failings of his leadership.
