Sole Candidate Reveals Election Platform

Lee finally shows off his election platform today

The sole candidate running for the next Chief Executive of Hong Kong finally unveiled his platform just days before the election on May 8.

John Lee Ka-chiu promised to strengthen governance, boost land and housing supply, improve Hong Kong's competitiveness, and build a caring society.

Lee has made requisite visit to grassroots families

Housing is a top issue for Beijing and now it's up to Lee to tackle it, just like every other chief executive has since Tung Chee-hwa in 1997 and they have all failed abominably.

How is Lee really going to break the developers' small circle and make them build more public housing remains to be seen, as no other leader has managed to make them heel? The supply of land is tight and that's what makes property values so high. No one wants to see them plunge. 

Meanwhile in his platform, the former chief secretary proposes a new scheme that would allow people to move into new public housing estates earlier, even when the surrounding infrastructure is not fully ready. He said that could shorten people's wait times by about a year.

But who wants to live in a completed building and yet there are no public transportation? How are these people supposed to get around? Walk? Bike? Maybe Lee has forgotten these low-income residents can't afford a car and parking space...

China is more developed at the border than HK

Lee has also proposed a pilot scheme to help those living in subdivided flats by giving them job training and support to some 1,000 school children... what that means is not clear, but what kind retraining are they talking about? If it's just to make a few dollars more per hour, it's not going to help these families significantly. He claims this program, which would run for two to three years would help tackle generational poverty.

That sounds like really short term help -- getting people out of poverty takes years of support. This is where NGOs and grassroots groups help low-income people with long-term solutions, but many of these organisations are worried about possibly violating the national security law if they do a better job than the government.

If elected Lee says he will review and plan for the Northern Metropolis and Lantau Tomorrow Vision schemes, which means current Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's proposals could be further tweaked, which is a good exit if he needs one. While further integrating with the mainland makes sense for Hong Kong, how is this going to work exactly? We hope the latter idea will be scrapped for environmental reasons.

Lee says national education will be strengthened

He is also keen on further enhancing national education for students. This is expected, as it is an order from Beijing. How can this be a taken seriously as part of his platform?

How about some new exciting ideas, John? 

Without a viable competitor, how is the public supposed to consider Lee a good candidate?

Oh I forgot -- we're not voting -- only 1,500 Beijing-approved are.

Surely he's going to do better than 689 and 777 when Lee already has more than 700 nominations...