The Advanced Leadership Enhancement Programme for Directorate Officers No. 3
Module I – Policy & Governance
Speech by Dr. C. H. Leong
                Chairman of the Council, The University of Hong Kong
      11 December 2011

      I should begin by welcoming you all on behalf of The University of Hong Kong and the Faculty of Law.  On behalf of HKU and the Faculty, I have to thank the SAR Government to choose us as your partner in organizing such a Forum for senior government directorate officers.  Today, proper POLICY MAKING, PROPER GOVERANCE, EFFICIENT IMPLEMENTATION of polices is what a successful government, a successful organization, be it NGO, be it business, is all about.

      This, it is the third time I have been invited to address such a Forum.  From the last two Fora, I realized that many who participated have now move into even more senior ranks — Directors of Department, Permanent Secretaries or even Secretaries.  No, I am not taking credit for these courses, but no doubt these course will give you some guidelines to manage issues as a climb up the ladder of government hierarchy.
     
Actually, every time I was asked to talk about leadership, policy formulation, governance etc, I feel embarrass.  After all as a simple minded private medical practitioner, I run a set up of two nurses, one secretary and one tea lady.  I am the leader because I pay their salaries, there is no governance, no policy formulation, except to ensure that there will be good number of patients to make a living.

      Those who want to comfort me has reminded me that I have headed the Hospital Authority, and am now the Chairman of the HKU Council.  Please do not mention them.  With the Hospital Authority, I had to resign.  With HKU, I don’t know which  mistake I have to shoulder — the 8.18 incident; or the V.C. not seeking further extention of his contract after serving 10 years and 2 contracts., or both.

      It is against such background and perhaps my other less problematic public services that I would like to bring you through my thought on areas on POLICY FORMULATION in particular engaging the public; Effective Implementation of Policy; Leadership and Accountable Government.

POLICY FORMULATION

      Policy formulation is a difficult task.  Should it be top down, or bottom up? Since any government exists to serve the needs of the public, how do you engage the public and the different stakeholders.

      Remembering any policy, new or a change in policy will be supported by some and opposed by others, mainly because of self vested interest.  And because it may be personal, it is difficult to alter their feelings.  Furthermore, needs and objections of people change with time, with needs and with the environment.  A good policy pushed out at the wrong time in a wrong environment, is bound to fail.

      Let me now use a couple of examples - on personal experience - to illustrate this fact.

      The first example I am going to use is the POLICY to register Traditional Chinese Medical Practitioner (TCM).  While TCM is being practised all these times, well before 1841, those practitioners unlike western doctors have never been registered until just before 1997.  The reason is simple.  When Britain took charge of HK in 1841, by the Treaty of Nanjing, they could control everything in HK except Chinese Tradition.  TCM was considered not as a Medical Practice, but as a Chinese Tradition and therefore not under British control.  In short, any Chinese could claim to be a TCM practitioner.  It appears unfair.  On one hand, it was unfair to the real trained TCM practitioners.  Secondly, it was unfair to the public, because if the practitioner is not regulated nor controlled, how were patients’ rights protected?

      The move to introduce registration was then deemed a necessity.  To government, it had all the advantage of regulating a well utilized professional service which had to do with health, life and sickness.  As expected, opposition abound.  To the properly trained, TCM practitioners, they abhor a control of their well practice habits by the government.  To those who were not properly trained practitioners, they feared that their rice bowl might be taken away.  Even western medical doctors were against it — registering of TCM practitioners is synonymous with the recognition of their status —  would TCM practitioners take over the business of western doctors?

      I did all I could to lobby, engage both the TCM practitioners and western doctors.  Progress was slow.  At best, I was able to gather the 12 TCM groups to talk.  The break through came when 2 patients died after taking the wrongly dispensed herbs and the herbalist disappeared.  Government was forced to lobby the general public and to go against the interest groups.  The policy of registration of TCM won the day and a law was ultimately enacted.

      But should it always take a crisis or a loss of life to push through a good policy.  There are of course less devastating examples.

      While the population is ageing (today one in 7 is 65 and above, in 20 years times, one in 4 will be in that category), yet most of our retirees are still active (government impose a retirement age at 60).  It is government policy to promote ACTIVE AGEING.  Yes, there were day centres for elderlies to find ways to occupy their time, but you would encounter many such elderlies (fairly young) still prefer to loiter in parks and squares of old town reading out dated news papers and magazines.  When asked why they do not seek entertainment in DAY CENTRES. the replies were that they could not tolerate the programmes in DAY CENTRES and they did not want to mix with the “old ladies”.  Instead, they want to learn new things — work with computer, English, etc.

      The idea of an “Elder Academy” sprang into mind.   Why don’t we utilize the after school space of primary and secondary schools, utilize the students of the schools to teach the elders.

      The concept was therefore born.  A platform (classrooms after school hours) is provided for the elderlies to practice and learn something new in a school setting.  School children, primary and secondary, will be teaching the elderlies and after some times vise versa.  Intergenerational harmony became unexpected a windfall.  A good policy, yet the hurdle is not crossed.  Schoolmasters were worried over the extra burdening the staff with work, they were worried about over the overtime pay and for the extra electricity bills.  NGOS were complaining that the Elderly Academy was taking over their work.  Political clout, determination and intense lobby won the day.  I managed to convince one school to be the pilot.  It worked, elderlies and students alike love the concept.  Today, a total of 114 schools were involved in the project, 6 tertiary education institutions had joined in the game.

PROPER IMPLEMENTATION

      Good, well thought out policy, will fail if not properly implemented. The timing must also be right.  Furthermore, policy and practise must synchronize and coincide.  Let me elaborate.

      Sometime last year, 5 LegCo members resigned.  They took advantage of the needed reelection, campaigned on a “sham” referenting for universal suffrage and all got reelected to the seats they left.   There was a public outcry.  These 5 persons were making a mockery of the election, they are wasting public money and time.  Rightly so, the public demanded that government should have this loop hole plugged.

      Some 12 months later, government came up with a bill to prevent those resigned from entering the reelection for the same term.  It was an opportunity loss.  The pain of wasting public money and time was subtly forgotten.  The public was being misled that this move was against to the Basic Law that all HK permanent residents have a right to stand and vote for election.  A good policy but introduced at a wrong time.

      Take a successful example.  Ever since HK became a port, all attendance at the government and public Accident and Emergency.  Services were free.  The end result was excessive workload, long queue in the A & E Departments, detrimental to those that were real emergencies.  The public was rightly frustrated.  Political parties were invited to A & E Department to observe.  Some even conducted a poll on the percentage of patients that were “real” emergencies.  Opportunity should not be lost, as Chairman of Hospital Authority, I convinced government to levy a charge on A & E $100.  The imposed charge was free to $100 (one hundred times) overnight, but there was no outcry.  I even had to beg a political party to send members to one A & E to start a “half hearted” protest.  A&E staffs were all properly trained to deal with the “changes”, so there was no default.  Proper preparations were needed to assure faultless implementation.

      Often times, policy and implementation were not in line.  Government retires the staff at 60, and many organization follows.  Yet, our Mandatory Provident Fund was not matured until the person is 65.  What do you do to make a living from 60 to 65.

      Government has always and repeated promote “ Ageing at homes” — a good policy, for most elderlies like to age in their useful setting with the offsprings.  Yet, the irony was that if you put your aging parents in an Old Age Home, you get a high rate of deduction of tax than if you leaving the elderlies “ageing at home”.  How paradoxical!

LEADERSHIP

      I would now like to move to talk about leadership and in particular leadership or qualities of a leader — today.

      Personally, except perhaps for the Dalla Lama, I do not believe that “leaders are born”.  I believe that leaders are the result of insight, training and experience.  Civil services for examples are perfect training grounds for leadership — many of you go through difference departments and bureaux working from bottom upwards.  I always marvel at how some of you could move from say a health related bureau to a treasury related department, and presto you are just as competent.  I once tease a good friend of mine in the senior rank of civil service that he was an “overnight expert”.

     Joking aside what are the requirements of a leader today, be it in the government, in LegCo, in the public sector or private sector, irrespective of the size of the organizations.

• He/she has to LEAD and yet follow

While it is important to listen to the “views” of people under you, you must lead them to realize and accept a direction which you after conscious consideration is the right way to go.  A balance between the general public good and the interest of vested groups is essential.

Take the example of LegCo members today, in particular those in the Functional Constituency, most vote whatever their voters demand; most pushed for issues that relate to the welfare of their voters without considering the benefit of the total public.  Thus, most act only as a mouthpiece, not a leader of that group.  It is therefore NOT that Functional Constituency is a problem, it is the representative of the Constituency who is not doing the proper “act” to balance the needs of his/her groups vs. the interest of the public at large, that produce the problems.

He/she has to be firm and yet humble.  A leader has to show his position, his determination and his aura.

      Today, the term “father knows best”, “I lead, you follow” cannot be taken to the “letters”. It is very important for leaders to be able to communicate, to listen with patience although he/she may not agree with it.

      Since I took up the Chairmanship of the Elderly Commission, I make it every opportunity to attend elderly functions, be it to share their joy or to take note of their “grievances”.  The common feedbacks I got is the “if the 官 are like you, listening to us, it would make things better”.  So what does it take to become a LEADER.

•  He or she must be knowledgeable, yet know how to delegate.  I think this is obvious, no person could be Jack of all Trades and Master of all.  I have always said the Chief Executive is very important, but just as important is his/her team.

• He/she must work within principles, but should NOT be bond by bureaucratic constraints — you have to think out of the box.

Yes, a leader must have principles to guide his work and he has to do his best to abide by those principles.  Yet thinking out of the box in today world is a necessity, in particular when human touch comes into consideration.
A few years ago, a religious charitable organization applied to a relevant government department for a place in a Housing Estate to establish a Chartable Dental Clinic, of course also for concession in rent.  After some 8 months submitting all the details included building plan, equipments, staff budget etc., the reply was that government policy support will be needed.  Months passed to solicit before for policy support from the relevant bureaux was obtained.   Another 6 months passed, finally approval was given but only for 3 years with no possibilities of any extension.  Millions of dollar would be thus spent to equip the premise for charitable services to elderlies for very much needed dental care but only for 3 years.

• He/she must have political clout/ political determination

As the saying goes “you can please some people all the time, you can please all people some of the times, but you cannot please all people all the time”.  How true!  Many issues would require a “good” leader to use his/her political determination, exercise his/her political clout, sometimes “bite the bullet” and get things done.

     For some 20+ years, the government had been trying to reform Health Care Financing.  Some how very little headway was achieved despite repeated consultation exercises.  The recent proposal, an Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme is NOT a total Health Care Financing Reform.  Why?   The reason is simple.  HK has been running on a more less “free” public health care services, any reform will invariably mean the public have to pay more, one way on the other.  Yes most people would realize that the current financial model would not be able to sustain a good high standard public health care.  Yet, when is the proper timing to change? When the economy is dwindling, it is the wrong time because it will be “趁你病，要你命”.  When the economy is good and government has a lot of reserve, “why take more money from me”? If health care financing reform is to be successful, government has to come up with a decision, push it forward instead of endless consultations.

• He/ she has to properly face the media

Today in particular the media plays a vital role in the make or break of a leader

• News spread so fast because of communications;
• While most media do factual reporting, scandalous news and negative news often attract more attention and therefore a bigger shares of the market for that media;
• Utilize diverse way to project your image.

Most public figures are afraid of the media. You should not consider the media as your enemy, instead you have to utilize the media to push what you want to achieve.

      Remember, today’s media is smart and knowledgeable.
Make sure:

• Don’t show your emotion;
• Proper rehearse;
• Frank and sincere with them;
• Choose words properly because it may not be retractable;
• Don’t give too many messages but only those you want to emphasize;
• Say all you need to say and do not let them entice you to say more;
• Electronic media is always better than printed media because you could not be “misquoted”.

• Finally he/she must be accountable — I always believe the phrase “the bug stops at the top”.

Ladies and gentleman, on this note of Accountability, I would like to stress 2 things — one as Prof. Tai wrote to me about myself and how I face challenges and secondly my thoughts of HK.

      I have always believed in a few principles:
       
      In public services, there should not be any vested interest nor a personal agenda.

• One can only do one’s best, even thought such way not be enough for the public.
• Be accountable.

HK is a very funny place.

• HK people crave for democracy, I do too, and we have move very fast.  What other people take centuries, to accomplish, we are attempting to do it in decades.

But does people understand true democracy, what do people understand the significance of “one man one vote”.  How do you use that vote.  If you use that vote to push for improvement of the society in total, then you have the true spirit, but instead, if you use that vote to seek your own interests, the whole direction is coloured.

HK is still in the midst of what I call a “clash of civilizations”, while we are very much a part of China, we still want to keep our British heritage.  Many functions even government functions began with a Scottish Piper Band.  The recent HKU Vice Premier sitting place is another example.  In a British protocol, the host always sit in the middle and the principle guest on his/her right.  In typical Chinese tradition, the principal guest sits in the middle flank by the host.

Finally, HK people, despite now being “master of our own house”, still retain a dependency culture and blame culture.  Dependent on the government; everything have to do with the Administration, for what is better to blame than the government when things are not as they wish.

  Let me end therefore with the true story.  A few years ago, during a cholera outbreak (cholera is mainluy transmitted by eating contaminated uncooked food), I saw an old man eating raw shellfish.  When asked whether he is worried of contracting cholera, his replied was “cholera is government problem and responsibility”.

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