Cheung’s fall sends feel-bad mood

to new height
2013 年 05 月 27 日 00:54

Launched by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam on April 23, the “Hong Kong: Our
Home” city-wide campaign aimed to boost positive energy and foster a sense of
pride about the city should have celebrated its first month of operation with a big
bang at the weekend.

The surprise resignation of Barry Cheung Chun-yuen, who is widely seen as one
of the closest allies to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, from all public posts on
Friday has spoiled the positive mood of the Leung administration.

It has not only deepened the negative feel-bad sentiments prevalent in the
society towards the Leung team, making a mockery of the campaign, which is
due to run throughout 2013 with the goal of connecting the government and the
people.

Worse, it has worsened the depletion of public trust and confidence in the Leung
cabinet, doubling its difficulty in making best use of the next 12 to 18 months to
deliver substantive results on a list of economic and livelihood issues.

Given the vital role of Cheung in Leung’s campaign and the ruling cabinet, it is no
overstatement to say his fall from disgrace looks certain to deal a body blow to
the authority and image of the Leung team.

As the head of Leung’s election campaign, there are reasons to believe Cheung
is one of the handful of advisers most trusted by the Chief Executive. He sat on
the Executive Council and a top-level task force on housing policy. It was
rumoured that he had been named as a candidate of the financial secretary. In a
departure from the policy of a six-year cap on the tenure of government
appointment, his chairmanship of the Urban Renewal Authority was given a two-
year extension in April.
Speculation was rife Leung had planned to name him to sit on the Mass Transit
Railway Corporation with an ultimate goal of putting him on the helm of the most
important public transport network.

In many aspects, Cheung is just too big to fall.

That the political career of Cheung has come to an end, at least seen to be the
case now, in just one week after the closure of the cash-strapped Hong Kong
Mercantile Exchange has raised serious questions about the governance of the
Leung administration.

If Executive Council Cheung Chi-kong was telling the truth yesterday when he
said he was aware of the HKMEx’s business trouble more than one year ago, it is
inconceivable that Leung appeared to have no sense of crisis about the potential
political fallout of Cheung’s business activities.

The magnitude of the fallout of the ill-fated HKMEx is still unclear. Initial details of
the charges against three mainlanders given at a court on Saturday have
surprised political pundits. The trio faced charges of possessing false documents
purporting to show they possessed or had access to several billion Hong Kong
dollars.

Barry Cheung is understood to have spoken to police investigators handling the

case on Friday, hours before he tendered his resignation from all public posts to
Leung.

Although it is anybody’s guess on whether Cheung was involved in the

mainlanders’ case, it will be difficult for him to come clean over the demise of the
HKMEx. The mystery behind the HKMEx including its sources of fund has already
become the subject of juicy press reports since its closure ten days ago.

A number of key questions are likely to remain unanswered even after the case
that involved three mainlanders has come to an end.

Speaking on Sunday, Cheung Chi-kong has described the Cheung case as a hill
fire, adding what Cheung has done was to build a firewall to avoid troubles to the
whole Leung team.

It will prove to be wishful thinking.

The controversy will aggravate the feeling of distrust and doubts about the
credibility of Leung and his close allies and advisers and their capability in
leading the society to build a better Hong Kong.

Coming amidst of a blitz of negative publicity including the ineptness of Marine

Department, police handling of a young “Occupy Central” campaign volunteer
and the scandal of former ICAC chief, the Barry Cheung case will deepen a
feeling of gloom, anger and disappointment among the people towards the
government and the society.

With the Government already facing a host of difficult political and livelihood
issues, Beijing will no doubt feel jitters about what happened and its impacts on
Leung’s governance. Leung is set to face questions about whether he has an
oversight of Cheung’s business background before installing him on key posts.

Following the closure of the National People’s Congress plenum in March, the Xi
Jinping-Li Keqiang leadership has launched a new round of united front work,
starting with the pro-Beijing circle and business sector, to help shore up the
popularity of Leung.

Speculation about an early departure of Leung, which had been laid to rest in the
last few months, is likely to be revived.

As the city enters the sensitive political season with the annual June 4 candle-
light vigil and July 1 march drawing near, the hill fire Barry Cheung had attempted
to put off is set to cause unfathomable damages to the Leung team.