04 Dec 2009

Letter to Hong Kong

Delivered on 4 December 2009

by Dr. C.H. Leong

         few days ago, I had a chance to exchange views with a delegation from Singapore on the challenges of an ageing population. Whilst there was a general praise for the policy directions and the actions for what Hong Kong is doing, it was agreed that more could and should be done, yet, there were comments that HK people seemed to be overall preoccupied with debates on political reforms.

        Yes, since the Government introduced a consultation document on the Methods of Selecting the Chief Executive and the Formation of the Legislative Council for 2012, the debate has turned livid. As expected, there were those who criticized that the suggested methods have not gone far enough in the direction of total universal suffrage. Yet, many do believe that they are definitely an improvement, a step forward in aligning universal suffrage, than what we have now. To them, status quo is not an option. Regrettable those who criticize have actually so far made very little enlightening suggestions for government to take stock. After all this is a consultation, and any bright and workable ideas should and will be taken on board before the final crunch.

         While the consultation is on elections in 2012, some have tangent off to call for a much wider context of political reform. There are some in the democratic camp who have mounted a campaign of Legco resignation tactic to push for total universal suffrage in 2012. Interesting enough, very few people that I have encountered, even among educated professionals, understand the implications of this movement. Those who do, considered it as a futile exercise.

         The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the highest decision making body in the Central Chinese Government has made a solemn decision with constitutional basis that there will be no universal suffrage in 2012 and that universal suffrage for the Chief Executive may be introduced in 2017 and for the Legislative Council after that, that is 2020 at the earliest. This, we have to respect.

        There are others in the pan-democrats who insisted on having a very detail road map leading to universal suffrage and clear definitions on what constitute universal suffrage of the Legislative Council at the 2020 election. With regret, these are not the remit of the current consultation document which focus only on the 2012 elections.

         Let there be no delusion that I am against universal suffrage. On the contrary, I believe that we should achieve the time table through appropriate amendments of our election processes that conform the principle of gradual and orderly progress, and that, the methods introduced in the consultation document are steps to achieve that result.

        I do call upon our community to support the proposed methods, albeit with minor alternations, to show that we can forge a consensus in preparation for universal suffrage by 2017.

        It is high time that Hong Kong should put more focus on other, perhaps just as important issues of social policies, in particular, the challenges of an ageing population.

        That, the population is ageing can be of no doubt. Today, one person in seven in HK is 65 or above, in 25 years time, one in 4 will be in that bracket. Elderlies who are retirees and no longer contributing to the public coffer are on the rapid increase. Correspondently, there will be shrinkage in the young and working population to contribute and to support the old. How we maintain our elderlies to be active, how we ensure that they can still be in touch with the society and contributing would take away the stigma that elderlies are a burden — and they are not. After all, the elders of today and that of tomorrow are and will be more active, healthier, more willing to contribute and participate in the society, and would be financially independent.

        It is on this basis that the Elderly Commission with the Labour and Welfare Bureau launched in 2007, an Elderly Academy where seniors could be enrolled into schools to promote life long learning and to achieve the goal of active ageing. Today, there are 98 primary and secondary schools that are involved in the programme, where using the schools as platforms, the students of the schools take on the role as “teachers” and the elderlies as “students”, learning computer usage, English language and Putonghua etc. 8 tertiary institutions have also joined the programme and elderlies are enrolled as university students to participate in the regular university courses.

Today, some 10,000 elderlies have benefited from the Elderly Academy in primary and secondary schools and over 1,000 from our tertiary institutions. Surprisingly, the young also derive benefits from learning life core values from the experienced seniors. The stage is also set for a promogation of intergeneration harmony which this society is in dire need. This programme is further supported by the Government. An Elderly Academy Development Fund has been established with an initial financial injection from the public purse.

        While in HK , there is no legal retirement age, most institutions, including the government, has pitch this at 60 years old which by today’s standard is young and at the prime of working life. It is on this basis that many countries had delayed their retirement age — up to 65 or even beyond. While extending retirement age might hinder the young from ascending the promotion ladder, it might be feasible to introduce a flexible retirement age scheme, where retirees could be re-employ on contract, on a needs or job basis.

        Alternately, social ventures or social enterprises could be set up that employ able bodied elders to keep them contributing. There are many successful models in other parts of the world. In HK, a recent success story involves a restaurant that employs senior citizens as waiters and managers. That restaurant, started with a small place, has now moved to open its third.

        These are of course only some very obvious problems that concern elderly care. But there are more and other social policy issues that require government to work with the non-governmental organizations and the business sectors to bring them into fruition. The elderlies will benefit and so will the society at large. Political reforms alone will not make this work.