Wednesday, September 13, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
On the road, finally, to carefree travel



   
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   Thanks to PCs and the internet, we have access to more information than we know what to do with. It is also true, thanks to the conflicting demands of career, home and personal life, that we are more time poor than ever.
In terms of quality of life, this can be a zero-sum game. We do not have the time to research all the information available, let alone put it to good effect to arrange an important purchase, or travel, entertainment, recreation or education. Therefore, anything that puts more time at our disposal without loss of work efficiency is to be welcomed. An example is the lead being given by the government and banks in moves towards a five-day working week.


It is arguable that the most irritating waste of our time is the amount taken up getting from one place to another, including travelling to work and back. This will not come as news to anyone who has sat in heavy traffic while their time ticks away, or who has been caught up without warning in a traffic jam caused by an accident, bad weather or roadworks.

The government tried to address the problem years ago by exploiting the modern abundance of information to save scarce time. The project, known as the Transport Information System (TIS), aims to provide a road map containing all information that could affect traffic conditions. But the project was frustrated by a dispute with the successful tenderer.

As we report today, the government has finally found a new partner for the HK$103 million contract.

When it is fully up and running, the TIS will enable travellers by public or private transport to access information on road conditions, weather and accident sites and the quickest route to their destination by computer, PDA and 3G mobile phones. A public transport information system giving the quickest route anywhere at any given time could be operating within 18 months.

The TIS will be hailed as a small move in the right direction by critics of the government's plan to reclaim a long stretch of harbour from Central to Causeway Bay for a road tunnel to relieve congestion on existing roads along the waterfront. They claim that every new road will eventually become saturated with traffic, and argue that congestion can only be alleviated by a comprehensive traffic management scheme that includes road pricing, levelling of the tolls of the three harbour crossings and more use of public transport.

That is a debate that is far from over. But the need for something like the TIS was demonstrated in May last year, when weather warnings from the Observatory failed to predict the strength of local storm winds in Kowloon. They toppled container stacks, felled trees and threw scaffolding onto the road, causing traffic chaos. It was hours before official warnings went out advising people to avoid the hot spots and take the MTR. The TIS might have made a difference.


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Thursday, September 14, 2006

OBSERVER
A cop-out on maids' rights


FRANK CHING
   
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   Once again, Hong Kong has been chastised by a United Nations human rights body about the way it treats foreign domestic helpers. And once again, the government has indicated that it intends to do nothing about it.
Late last month, the committee responsible for monitoring the way Hong Kong implements the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women voiced concern over the situation of female migrant domestic workers here.

  
It specifically mentioned the Immigration Department's "two-week rule", which requires these workers to leave Hong Kong within two weeks of their employment being terminated.

"The committee recommends that the [Hong Kong government] ensure that female foreign domestic workers are not discriminated against by their employers or subject to abuse and violence," it said. "It urges the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to repeal the `two-week rule' and to implement a more flexible policy regarding foreign domestic workers."

There is little doubt that some workers - especially Indonesians, most of whom do not speak English but who make up 43 per cent of all migrant domestic workers - are being abused by their employers, by employment agencies and by finance companies.

A recent study by the Centre for Comparative and Public Law of the University of Hong Kong concluded that such people "often work in situations of debt bondage" akin to slavery.

In those cases, a worker arrives and is met by a representative of a Hong Kong employment agency. The agency confiscates the worker's passport and employment contract, and takes her to a finance company, where she is forced to sign a sham loan document.

The agency then delivers the worker to the employer and asks him or her to deduct money from the maid's salary every month until the "loan" is repaid, sending the money directly to the finance company.

The Hong Kong government reacted self-righteously to the university study. The Labour Department said that foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong "are well protected when compared with [those] in other jurisdictions".

Moreover, it termed the 22 cases of debt bondage cited "a relatively small sample".

The government also says that it does not have jurisdiction, because the workers incur the debt obligations in their home country. But clearly, organisations in Hong Kong are complicit in the exploitation of these workers.

Hong Kong employment agencies are the ones that confiscate passports and force the workers to sign over very large sums, to be deducted from their salary, to a Hong Kong finance company.

If the Hong Kong government had the political will, it could easily uncover exactly what is going on and which employment agencies and finance companies are involved.

It could prohibit the confiscation of passports. This is one tactic that abusive employment agencies use to make the worker totally helpless: without her passport and employment contract, she is unable even to verify her identity, and cannot make any complaints to the police or other official body.

Forbidding the confiscation of identity documents is a recommendation that has been made by the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. Saying it doesn't have jurisdiction is a cop-out by the government.

It could also get rid of the "two-week rule", which has been in effect since 1987. As the Hong Kong University study points out, the rule "gives the employer the power to terminate the work visa". It also "discourages" the helper from filing complaints.

For over a decade, human rights committees have called on Hong Kong to abolish this rule.

The UN committee that monitors the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has been calling on the government to do so since at least 1994.

The Hong Kong government was unmoved then, and it remains unmoved now.

Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based writer and commentator. frank.ching@scmp.com



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Friday, September 15, 2006

PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE
False promise for the medical system


GEORGE CAUTHERLEY
   
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   Is private health insurance a promising remedy for dealing with the difficulties faced by public health-care systems? Many governments, including Hong Kong's, think so. But, like other policy tools, private insurance has its risks as well as opportunities.
Private insurance, its advocates believe, promises an "all-win" situation: it gives both the well-off and the less well-off better access to health care, and eases the cost pressure on the public health-care system. Shifting demand to the private sector frees up resources. This means the people who rely on the public system get better access to health care, while costs in the public system are eased.


Expanding the health-insurance market, it is reasoned, will also strengthen competition among insurers - leading to lower insurance premiums and health-care costs.

But sceptics wonder if an "all-win" situation is really attainable. They note, first, that commercial insurers have strong incentives to limit the amount of claims they pay - in order to earn profits and stay in business. To ensure profits, one strategy is to sell policies only to healthy people. That would burden the public system with a larger proportion of less healthy, and more costly, patients.

So increased private insurance may not necessarily free up resources or help ease cost pressures in the public system. Nor is there any certainty that it will improve health-care access for those remaining in the public system.

Second, expanding private insurance may draw doctors and nurses from the public to the private sector, where the pay is often better. That could force the public-health system to raise wage levels, either cutting into its budget for other services or forcing overall costs and spending to increase. In short, the growth of private insurance is not guaranteed to improve access - and may force up costs - in the public system.


Insurers must undertake a host of administrative tasks that do not exist in a medical system funded by taxes. These include assessing the risk status of the insured, determining premiums, underwriting policies, and administering billing and claims. None of these activities improve anybody's health. Private insurance also imposes significant amounts of administrative work on health-care providers, such as negotiating contracts with insurers and handling fee reimbursements. So, given the same amount of funding - other things being equal - more health care will be provided by a public system.

Medical systems financed by private insurance are generally more expensive. In 2004, the United States and Switzerland relied the most on private insurance, among member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. They also had the two most expensive medical systems - absorbing 15.3 per cent and 11.6 per cent, respectively, of their gross domestic product. The OECD average was 8.9 per cent.


Other research compared the tax-financed Canadian system with that in the US. It concluded that the excess administrative costs in the US were US$209 billion - or 17.1 per cent of all health-care spending. That's enough, it was estimated, to provide medical coverage for all uninsured Americans.

Advocates of private insurance must show why it is a worthy and effective policy tool for advancing healthcare objectives.

George Cautherley is convenor of the Healthcare Policy Forum.



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Monday, September 18, 2006

EDUCATING OUR YOUNGSTERS
Beware the media's influence


VICTOR KEUNG FUNG
   
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We must start educating our children about the media. Young people's values can be influenced by what they learn in the media, and we are seeing disturbing signs of what's happening.
Some computer companies, for example, give students discounts to buy computers. It's not uncommon, at the beginning of the school year, to see students selling their discount rights through internet chat rooms. The young people know full well that they are breaking the rules, but they do it anyway, to make a quick buck.

Such behaviour should not be condoned. We should pay attention to students' moral and social values because they are the future leaders of our society. In a recent public-opinion survey, 18 per cent of adult respondents said they were concerned about young people's honesty and conduct - a sharp increase from 8.8 per cent in a similar survey done one year ago.

Youngsters' values are shaped by what they learn at home, at school, from their peers and through the media. By the time they enter university, it is too late to change them - their value systems are already formed. We should educate youngsters between Primary Five and Form Five.

I believe most parents are doing a good job of telling their children what is right and what is wrong, although more could be done.

No doubt, teachers have also done well in educating our children. And we can always advise youngsters to distance themselves from undesirable friends.

But it's the media's impact that makes us feel so helpless. It's everywhere. And the media's role in shaping young people's values is enormous.

Asking the media not to spread evil, undesirable or improper values is an uphill battle, if not a losing one. Some media companies never regard the protection of moral or social values as their concern. Their sole objective is to maximise profit.

The government is reluctant to act because it could easily be accused of trampling press freedom and freedom of speech. Further, it could be politically sensitive to integrate media education into school curriculums. Once the government touches on moral values, people will start asking questions about political values - such as the virtues of communism and capitalism.

So, media education can only be done at home and through after-school programmes. Parents should talk more with their children about issues reported in the media, to help them determine the sort of behaviour that's acceptable.

In some other cultures, media education means more than just discussing issues covered in the media. Parents and teachers explain to young people what the background of a TV station or newspaper is, and what the organisation stands for. Knowing such things would help our children understand the messages they're getting. For instance, the anti-communist stance of The Wall Street Journal is known to all of us.

The government and charity organisations should fund after-school programmes to educate students about the media and what they report. This would help young people tell the difference between good and evil. I believe such programmes would be highly popular among students, because most young people are fascinated by the media.

When the new, six-year high school education system is implemented in the next few years, perhaps the government will consider including media education elements in one of the general-education courses. I will keep my fingers crossed.

It will be a long, hard battle to win the hearts and minds of our young, but it's a battle worth fighting: it will help shape not only their personal values, but also the future of Hong Kong.

Victor Keung Fung is a Hong Kong-based commentator on political and education issues.



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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
China widens its role on the world stage



  
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   China has sent the clearest signal yet of its intention to play a bigger role in world affairs by deciding to boost the size of its peacekeeping force in the troubled nation of Lebanon.
The larger commitment is welcome news. An expanded role in peacekeeping operations is one that the international community has long wanted China, the only Asian nation with a United Nations Security Council veto, to assume. Now that the nation has agreed to raise its peacekeeping force to 1,000, however, its decision is likely to draw both applause and alarm from the west.

  
Applause, because China's decision to put the lives of its soldiers at risk in a high-profile mission signals an expanded commitment to multilateral organisations. The move to dramatically increase the number of soldiers on the ground shortly after a Chinese peacekeeper was killed in Lebanon speaks to a high-level decision to up China's ante in the global diplomatic game. While we support China's move, those who worry about its rise likely will react with alarm. This is a powerful sign that China intends to take on a political and military role to match its growing economic might. In this regard it is likely to prove very different from Japan. As an emerging power with no serious conflicts with most countries, China is well suited to playing the role of peacekeeper. This is particularly so in places where conflicts have a religious dimension or where there is a colonial history. There, Chinese troops with no record of foreign conquests and no vested interests are more likely to be accepted as buffers between contending forces.

To be sure, there are reservations about China's policy of not interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries. The policy is rooted in the country's humiliation at the hands of western imperial powers a century ago. But Beijing has been using this policy of non-interference to justify turning a blind eye to human rights abuses by many governments. That is especially true in Africa, as it tries to secure raw materials from rogue states such as Sudan. China's attempt to prevent UN action in Darfur is shameful and deserves to be condemned. Closer to home, its support of Myanmar's generals has been vital for one of Asia's most repressive states.

However, whatever the weaknesses of this opportunistic non-interference policy, China's growing role as a peacekeeper is a sign that the country is becoming more integrated into the web of international agreements and institutions. As the nation's standing grows, we hope it will increasingly abide by global norms. China's largely successful first five years as a member of the World Trade Organisation has silenced many of the doubters on the economic front.

There is little reason why China cannot work for similar progress in the diplomatic sphere.


Committing troops to a war zone is a painful decision for any country and its leaders. Squeezed between belligerent forces, the job of peacekeepers is a largely thankless one. Although they carry arms, they are expected to fire only in self- defence. In practice, the political and military consequences of them firing to protect themselves can be so complex and devastating that they are essentially barred from doing what soldiers are supposed to do - fight.

In deciding to send troops overseas, one thing that works in Beijing's favour - at least for the time being - is that the leadership enjoys much greater freedom than its counterparts elsewhere. The Chinese political system is such that the leadership does not have to contend with a pacifist constitution, as is the case in Japan, or strong anti-war movements, which have great followings in many developed democracies.

In July, a Chinese military observer was killed in an Israeli attack on what it wrongly thought was a Hezbollah position. Over time, the presence of more Chinese troops overseas will lead to rising casualties among them. But that is the price China has to pay as a responsible member of the international community.


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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
Street markets a valuable part of our cultural heritage



   
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   One test of a great city is how well it preserves what is worth keeping. This is especially so in Hong Kong, where the issue of development versus preservation is complicated by lack of space. As a result there is often little room for sentiment such as preservation of important strands of our cultural heritage.
The buzz concepts are improved traffic flow, high-rise makeovers of old neighbourhoods such as Lee Tung Street in Wan Chai, fondly known to many as Wedding Card Street, and modern tourist attractions such as the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and Disneyland.


Traditional tourist attractions such as street markets do not loom large in the vision of government planners. Dai pai dongs are dying out because licences for the food stalls can only be passed on to spouses. The 70-year-old Wan Chai street market, the largest and oldest on Hong Kong Island, is the latest example of cultural heritage under threat. Since hawkers were driven out of Wan Chai Road 30 years ago to improve traffic flow, the market has thrived in the back streets, a way of life to locals and a magnet for tourists.

Now it is under pressure again, this time from urban renewal. Earlier this year, the government backed down from a plan to move all the 150-odd stalls indoors beneath a new residential development by China Estates Holdings. The move was aimed at improving traffic flow after the new development opens. But it was opposed by the hawkers because it would have robbed the market of its traditional open-air colour and character.

The government still insists that roughly half the market must go, and is trying to find alternative outdoor sites for 86 stallholders. Local residents and shopkeepers have opposed the building of new stalls within the remainder of the market.

It is ironic that one reason for the forced move is to improve traffic flow - as it was 30 years ago - and that another is to improve the area's "environmental hygiene". Some may wonder which detracts more from environmental hygiene - increased traffic polluting the air or local residents' perception of the market as visual "pollution" of the neighbourhood.

The emasculation of the Wan Chai market amounts to sanitisation of the streetscape at the expense of an important example of the city's cultural heritage. Visitors to the city will not be the only losers. Hawkers in densely populated urban areas supply a service to low- income groups for which there is no comparable alternative.

We have a more serious environmental hygiene problem than street markets - air pollution, which poses serious public health issues and casts a shadow over economic development. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen will earn the gratitude of all if he uses his policy address to outline a more comprehensive plan for improving air quality. That would be more meaningful than cracking down on popular street markets.


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Thursday, September 21, 2006

US TREASURY SECRETARY
Mr Paulson goes to China


DON EVANS
   
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This week, Henry Paulson is making his first trip to China as US treasury secretary. But this is hardly his first visit to the mainland. Mr Paulson has made more than 70 visits  to the country over the past three decades.
When US President George W. Bush nominated him as treasury secretary, he gained not only one of Wall Street's most respected leaders, but one of the world's foremost experts on China.

Over the years, Mr Paulson has cultivated relationships with Chinese leaders that are second to none. They know him as someone they can do business with, and someone they trust to speak with them frankly. China has emerged as the world's fastest-growing economy and one of America's most important trading partners: Mr Paulson's expertise could not have come on the scene at a better time.

During his trip, he will emphasise the critical importance of continued reform and modernisation of the mainland's financial sector. Such reform would promote the country's sustainable growth over the long term, expanding its economic output by as much as 17 per cent - according to a McKinsey and Company survey. It is also a prerequisite to progress on the big issues that define America's economic relationship with China.

The first of these is currency reform. As Mr Paulson made clear in his confirmation hearing, in order to remove capital controls and move to a more freely floating exchange rate determined by market forces, China must have a modern, fully functioning, market-based financial system.

The second key issue is the trade deficit. Among the reasons that our trade deficit with China exists and continues to grow is because Chinese consumers save too much. A better consumer-credit system would unleash unmobilised savings by allowing mainland consumers to use loans to buy many of the big-ticket items for which they now must save.

A stronger consumer market in the mainland would lead to a greater demand for imports from the United States, and a lower trade deficit.

The third concern is a level playing field for American companies operating in the mainland. Too much of China's capital continues to flow to inefficient, nonproductive state enterprises rather than to the most productive borrowers. Further opening of the country's financial system to foreign institutions would inject world-class expertise and know-how regarding credit analysis, risk management and internal controls into China's financial markets. This would transform its economy, putting foreign companies on a fairer, market-oriented, competitive footing with local enterprises.

I recently travelled to Beijing to meet top business and government leaders. We discussed many of the same issues that will be on Mr Paulson's agenda: the critical importance of open commercial banking, capital, and insurance markets to promoting the consumption-led economic growth that China's leaders seek; the need for China to continue to meet its obligations under the World Trade Organisation; and the importance of further steps towards currency reform.

I know, from my own experience, that Chinese financial leaders understand that allowing greater reliance on market principles is in the best interest of the country's long-term growth, job creation and general well-being of its citizens.

Mr Paulson's task will be to continue to urge them to transform that insight into action.

The US and China together accounted for half of the world's economic growth over the past four years. Further, China is the fastest-growing market for US exports and the second largest source for American imports.

The fortunes of the two countries are undeniably linked.

Don Evans is former US commerce secretary and chief executive officer of the Financial Services Forum.



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Friday, September 22, 2006

UNITED NATIONS MANDATES
Big talk, little commitment


ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER
   
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   The United Nations peacekeeping operations under way in Lebanon offer a big opportunity for the UN to demonstrate its relevance and impact on the world stage. If only those member states who claim to be the UN's biggest supporters would put their money where their mouths are.
Many world leaders, particularly those in Europe, decry the Bush administration's undermining of the UN, especially since 2003. Leaders in France expressed outrage when the US sidestepped the UN and invaded Iraq without the international community's blessing. Yet they stunned the world in August when they backed down from their promise to send 2,000 peacekeepers to intervene in southern Lebanon, and instead committed only 200.


Fortunately, France is reconsidering, while Germany will provide limited naval assistance and Italy has stepped up to contribute 3,000 peacekeepers. But Europe's response, like the US response in other cases, highlights a critical issue for all supporters of the UN and international institutions more generally. If we cannot do what it takes to make them more effective, we will increasingly find that nations will bypass them altogether.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire. It thus set the stage for UN officials to set out the rules of engagement for its peacekeepers. The rules dictate when, and under what circumstances, UN troops can fire their weapons to defend themselves. But, as the current UN mission in Lebanon well knows, defending yourself is not the same as preventing hostile fire in the first place.

But the need for rules of engagement is only the symptom of a deeper problem. The real issue is a yawning gap between paper and practice. In the heat of an international crisis, the security council passes resolutions to great public fanfare, establishing an official UN "mandate". But then the secretary-general is left, resolution in hand, to ask member states for the actual, tangible resources necessary to implement the action that has been commanded. In the overwhelming majority of cases, those resources fall far short of what is required to successfully intervene in a crisis.

A UN mandate review this year found that member states adopt hundreds of mandates each year - conferring "additional responsibilities with neither corresponding funds nor guidance" on how resources should be used. In American domestic politics, such commands from the US Congress to states are known as "unfunded mandates" - ordering results without providing the resources necessary to achieve them. It's political theatre: big headlines, small results. The mandate gap reflects the way the world has done business with the UN for decades: big promises, small pay-outs, and much scapegoating if the UN then fails.

The UN provides the mechanism for a global response, but it does not exist separately from its member states. It is up to those members to provide both the necessary will and the required resources. Otherwise, the UN is nothing more than a handy mechanism for outsourcing political blame.

Our commitment to bring peace to the Middle East, or Darfur, or Kosovo or Haiti, is not measured by our words, but by our wallets. The world gets what it pays for.

The author is dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Copyright: Project Syndicate



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Monday, September 25, 2006

OUT OF THE BOX
Off to a miserable start


KITTY POON
   
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   September is the month of stress. Surveys indicated that nearly 78 per cent of Hong Kong teachers feel stressed by their overwhelming workloads at the start of the school year. This month is also a time of immense anxiety for parents - especially those whose children must make the transition from kindergarten to primary school one year from now.
A friend of mine is a mother of two, and her older daughter will be eligible to study in a primary school next year. But the admission process begins this month, and the whole family has been mobilised to achieve one single goal - to send their lovely girl to a reputable primary school.


At the core of this daunting task is the application letter. To impress the prospective school, the parents have decided to write it in English, although that means hiring a professional editor.

Also central to the application is the emphasis on the personality of the young lady. Hence, a great number of relatives are being enlisted to describe her amiable characteristics in their reference letters.

Knowing that extracurricular activities are one of the criteria in the selection process, some parents enrol their children in various private lessons, such as drawing, singing, kung fu, and ballet, to build an impressive record.

The application exercise also involves an interview at the prospective school. It's widely known that schools are likely to ask about the patterns of family life. In order to demonstrate to the school that they take a keen interest in expanding their children's cultural and other experiences, parents have to ingeniously "engineer" family outings. This often involves taking their children on guided tours around Hong Kong, or joining tours to the mainland and Taiwan.

Some parents, especially those with demanding jobs, can't take all these measures. For them, the remedy may lie in tutorials to train their youngsters in giving model answers during school interviews.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that enrolling your child in a reputable primary school in Hong Kong is equivalent to getting a top job with a Wall Street firm.

For many families, this admission exercise can take a heavy toll on finances - especially for those with modest incomes. It also places undue pressure on working parents, who have to invest a lot of time and energy. Further, it makes a mockery of the city's education system, which gives little thought to the value of personal growth.

It would be difficult to fully understand the true feelings of the children being put through this ludicrous enrolment process. But it was reported that more than 300 calls from disturbed students have been received by the Federation of Youth Group so far this month.

It's hard to imagine that children could go on to enjoy - and feel motivated in - their years in school, after such a terrifying experience at the beginning of their school life.

This corrosion of the genuine interest in learning will have significant implications for the personal development of our young children.

It will also eventually undermine their creativity, thus weakening the overall vibrancy of Hong Kong in the long run.

Kitty Poon, a research fellow at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, is a part-time member of the government's Central Policy Unit.



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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

MISGUIDED ENERGY POLICY
An escape from Bush's future


JEFFREY SACHS
   
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It always comes back to oil. The continuing misguided interventions in the Middle East by the United States and Britain have their roots deep in the Arabian sand. Ever since Winston Churchill led the conversion of Britain's navy from coal to oil at the start of the last century, the western powers have meddled incessantly in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries to keep the oil flowing - toppling governments and taking sides in wars in the supposed "great game" of energy resources. But the game is almost over, because the old approaches are obviously failing.
Just when one is lulled into thinking that something other than oil is at the root of current US and British action in Iraq, reality pulls us back. Indeed, US President George W. Bush recently invited journalists to imagine the world 50 years from now. He did not have in mind the future of science and technology, a global population of 9 billion, or the challenges of climate change and biodiversity. Instead, he wanted to know whether Islamic radicals would control the world's oil.

Whatever we are worrying about in 50 years, this will surely be near the bottom of the list. Even if it were closer to the top, overthrowing Saddam Hussein to ensure oil supplies in 50 years ranks as the least plausible of strategies. Yet we know, from a range of evidence, that this is what was on Mr Bush's mind when his government shifted its focus from the search for Osama bin Laden to fighting a war in Iraq.


In any event, the war in Iraq will not protect the world's energy supplies in 50 years. If anything, it will threaten them by stoking the very radicalism it claims to be fighting. Genuine energy security will come not by invading and occupying the Middle East, or by attempting to impose pliant governments, but by recognising certain deeper truths about global energy.

First, energy strategy must satisfy three objectives: low cost, diverse supply and drastically reduced carbon-dioxide emissions. This will require massive investments in new technologies and resources, not a "fight to the finish" over Middle East oil. Important energy technology will include the conversion of coal to liquids (such as petrol and diesel), the use of tar sands and oil shale, and growth in non-fossil-fuel energy sources.

Indeed, there is excellent potential for low-cost solar power, zero-emitting coal-based technologies, and safe and reliable nuclear power. Solar radiation equals roughly 10,000 times our current energy use. We tap that solar power in many fundamental ways, but the possibilities are huge for a greatly increased use of inexpensive, widely available and environmentally friendly solar power.

Coal, like solar energy, is widely available. It is already inexpensive, but it is a major pollutant and a source of greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet these problems can be solved. Gasification of coal allows for the removal of dangerous pollutants, and coal can already be converted to liquid oil products at low cost; a South African company is beginning to bring that technology to China on a large scale. Nuclear power is yet another possibility for reliable and environmentally safe energy.

It is ironic that an administration fixated on the risks of Middle East oil has chosen to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to pursue unsuccessful military approaches to problems that should be solved at vastly lower cost, through research and development, regulation and market incentives. The biggest energy crisis of all, it seems, involves the misdirected energy of a US foreign policy built on war rather than scientific discovery and technological progress.

Jeffrey Sachs is a professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Copyright: Project Syndicate



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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
The big question: how small should government be?



   
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   Economist Milton Friedman hit the nail on the head when he said the four words "big market, small government" were fine but "it all depends on what you fill them with". As the debate continues on whether the catchy phrase adopted by the government is the same as "positive non-interventionism", there is a better question the community should be asking: what should the role of government be? We need to reach a consensus on the answer as it determines how "small" we want our government to be.
These days, even the most ardent free-market economists agree that unfettered capitalism is untenable, as the government needs to intervene in the markets to establish the ground rules and safeguard the public interest. What they differ on is the form and extent of such intervention.


Dr Friedman and his followers probably feel that our heavily subsidised, sizeable public housing and health-care programmes are blatant interventions in the market. But others, who feel the government should play a role in redistributing wealth, are of the view that Hong Kong is not doing nearly enough to narrow the wide gaps between the rich and the poor.

In fact, when and how extensively governments should intervene in business affairs has been an enduring theme in economic history. It is one over which wars have been fought, revolutions waged and, in the case of Hong Kong, rowdy demonstrations and spirited debates held.

Hong Kong has a low-tax regime and a policy of capping public spending at no more than 20 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with more than 40 per cent in many developed economies. The bulk of our budget is devoted to social spending on heavily subsidised education and welfare services, public housing for 30 per cent of the population and welfare for about 16 per cent.

Opinions are split on whether the government should do more or less. Some argue the size of our public sector is already too large as Hong Kong is a city that does not have to fund an army. Besides, unlike sovereign countries that have to maintain extensive diplomatic representations overseas, we run only a small number of economic and trade offices in key cities abroad and on the mainland. Others say Hong Kong should spend more on public services, although it is not always clear if they want the government to tax more and spend more, or cut existing services and use the savings on new ones.

Should the size of the public sector remain at less than 20 per cent of GDP? Or should it be expanded or reduced? Rather than dwelling on the semantic differences between "positive non-interventionism" and "big market, small government", these are the questions our officials and politicians should lead the public to debate. These are fundamental issues about what kind of a society we want Hong Kong to be and they are crucial to the making of tough decisions, such as whether to introduce a goods and services tax.


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Thursday, September 28, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
A chance for Japan to change with the times



   
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   Japan's newly-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is his country's first leader born since the end of the second world war, and the cabinet he has appointed is generally of the same generation. That such a government has come about says much of present-day Japan and the urgent challenges its politicians face.
Those matters, ranging from stabilising the economy, through rehabilitating state finances to dealing with a rapidly ageing population and improving relations with neighbouring countries, have long been the bane of successive Japanese governments. Resolving them will be important in moving the nation forward, but the solution will be no easier for a cabinet without war memories than it has been for those faced with the same problems and, as a rule, a decade or two older.


Nonetheless, perceptions are important in this juncture of Japan's history, just as in 2001 when Mr Abe's flamboyant predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, took office.

Mr Koizumi, then 59, was seen as a breath of fresh air capable of rejuvenating the image of the factious ruling Liberal Democratic Party and taking on Japan's ills. In five years, he accomplished what previous prime ministers had thought impossible: confronting the party's old guard to push through economic reforms, most notably the privatisation of the savings and insurance giant Japan Post. Single-handedly, he also turned back the clock of progress on relations with China and South Korea, insisting on yearly visits to the Yasukuni shrine to remember Japan's war dead.

The new prime minister, 52, has made implementing a broad Asian diplomacy one of his cabinet's key tasks. How it will go about that given that Foreign Minister Taro Aso, also a conservative who challenged for the premiership, has retained his job is unclear. While Mr Abe has said he wants better ties with Beijing and Seoul, he has side-stepped whether he intends to go to Yasukuni while in office. Foreign policy under him will, for now, have to be a wait-and-see matter, although if he truly wishes what he claims, he can readily make that happen.

Foreign ties may yet be governed by domestic issues. Keeping the economy from slipping back into deflation while taking into account a declining population, the need for a sustainable social security system, dealing with the outstanding 770 trillion yen (HK$51.41 trillion) debt of the central and local governments and the urgency of education and immigration reform will keep the cabinet busy.

Mr Abe has also made replacing the pacifist constitution his goal. He envisages the document will lead the country away from what he terms a "post-war regime" and guide the nation's future.

Mr Koizumi broke the mould of Japanese leaders. With Mr Abe and his team representing a younger, more energetic breed of politician, an opportunity exists for Japan to change with the times.


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Friday, September 29, 2006

US INTELLIGENCE REPORT
Face the grim truth about Iraq


DAVID IGNATIUS
   
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   No matter how you slice it, the US National Intelligence Estimate warning that the Iraq war has spawned more terrorism is big trouble for US President George W. Bush and his party in this election year. It goes to the heart of Mr Bush's argument for invading Iraq, which was that it would make America safer.
Many Democrats act as if that's the end of the discussion: a mismanaged occupation has created a breeding ground for terrorists, so we should withdraw and let the Iraqis sort out the mess. Some extreme war critics are so angry at Mr Bush that they seem almost eager for America to lose, to prove a political point. Even among mainstream Democrats, the focus is "gotcha!" rather than "what next?" That is understandable, but it isn't right.


The issue raised by the intelligence report is much grimmer than the domestic political game. Iraq has fostered a new generation of terrorists. The question is what to do about that threat. How can America prevent Iraq from becoming a new safe haven? How does America restabilise a Middle East that today is dangerously unbalanced because of Washington's blunders in Iraq?

This should be the Democrats' moment, if they can translate the national anger over Iraq into a coherent strategy for the future. But with a few notable exceptions, they are mostly ducking the hard question of what to do next.


Here's a reality check for the Democrats: there is not a single country in the Middle East, with the possible exception of Iran, that favours a rapid American pullout from Iraq. Why? The consensus in the region is that a retreat now would have disastrous consequences for America and its allies. Yet withdrawal is the Iraq strategy you hear from most congressional Democrats, whether they call it "strategic redeployment" or something else.

I wish Democrats - and Republicans, for that matter - were asking this question: how do we prevent Iraq from becoming a failed state? Many critics of the war would argue that the worst has already happened - Iraq has already unravelled. Unfortunately, as bad as things are, they could get considerably worse. Following a rapid American pullout, Iraq could descend into a full-blown civil war, with the Sunni-Shi'ite violence spreading outward throughout the region.

In this chaos, oil supplies could be threatened, sending the price of oil well above US$100 a barrel. Turkey, Iran and Jordan would intervene to protect their interests.

The Democrat who has tried hardest to think through these problems is Senator Joseph Biden. He argues that the current government of national unity isn't succeeding in holding Iraq together, and that America should instead embrace a policy of "federalism plus" that will devolve power to the Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions. Iraqis are already voting for sectarian solutions, Senator Biden argues, and America won't stabilise Iraq unless it aligns its policy with this reality.

Iraq has compounded Muslim rage and created a dangerous crisis for the United States. The damage of Iraq can be mitigated only if it again becomes the nation's war - with the whole country invested in finding a way out of the morass that doesn't leave us permanently in greater peril. If the Democrats could lead that kind of debate about security, they would become the nation's governing party.

David Ignatius is a Washington Post columnist.



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Tuesday, October 3, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
Building design has key role to play in recycling



   
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   The Environmental Protection Department's proposal to amend building regulations in a bid to encourage the separation and recycling of domestic waste deserves support. It aims to make it easier for people to participate in recycling and, in this way, help develop a more sustainable lifestyle.
Officials want to change the building code to ensure that every residential building has a purpose-built room on every floor for the collection of rubbish, providing residents easier access to segregated recycling bins.



Generating as little waste as possible is an essential component of the sustainable society that Hong Kong must try to achieve. But doing it is not as easy as it sounds in this space-challenged city.

This has been illustrated by a pilot scheme that aimed to encourage housing estates to sort and recycle their waste. After expanding at a rapid rate to cover 420 housing estates accommodating about 26 per cent of the population, the scheme has failed to expand further. Those that have failed to join up are not averse to the scheme, but are barred from participating by the physical constraints of the buildings in which they live.

The amazing fact that has so far escaped attention, so far as policy-making is concerned, is that most residential buildings in Hong Kong do not have built-in facilities for handling waste. Garbage bins are typically placed at staircase platforms as an afterthought, sometimes at the risk of breaching fire safety rules. There is simply no space for putting several bins on each floor for separately collecting recyclable waste such as plastic, aluminium cans and paper, as well as waste that cannot be recycled.

At many buildings, the rubbish collection process is also very unhygienic. As they are not fitted with service lifts or disposal shafts, waste collectors with their trolleys use residents' lifts for carrying rubbish. The only exceptions are public housing blocks, which have purpose-built collection rooms on every floor, connected by shafts.

The lack of attention to rubbish disposal facilities at housing estates would likely change if the government were to impose a garbage fee to encourage people to embrace recycling. Reducing waste and fostering recycling by imposing a green tax is sound. But the idea would be socially and politically more acceptable if buildings were designed to facilitate waste separation and recycling.

The Buildings Department has made efforts to make buildings more environmentally friendly by reviewing its requirements and encouraging the inclusion of so-called green features.


For the sake of both cleaner living and waste reduction, the Environmental Protection Department's advice should be heeded. Purpose-built rooms for rubbish collection should become standard features in new buildings, and help provided to make such space in old buildings.


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Wednesday, October 4, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
The UN: a test of strength if ever there was one



   
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   The United Nations has, sadly, suffered collateral damage in a world changed forever by terrorism. Its authority was diminished by the US-led invasion of Iraq without UN support, and its credibility damaged by indecision in the face of challenges thrown up by the new threat. In the midst of a crisis of relevance, its reputation was shredded by the exposure of internal corruption and mismanagement that led to the disappearance of billions of dollars from the oil-for-food programme meant to help poor Iraqis before the war.
The priority of the next secretary-general of the UN must therefore be to preside over the restoration of the world body's moral authority and credibility. That is a lot to ask of one person whose position carries plenty of prestige but who, rather than exercising real power, is dependent on forging consensus. However, a number were prepared to take it on - mainly Asians, because it was Asia's turn at the top job for the first time since  U Thant, who held it between 1961 and 1971. As the only one to command the support of all five permanent members of the Security Council, South Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, is assured of formal approval by the council and the General Assembly.

  
The big five rarely remain in agreement for long, but Mr Ban will clearly need all the support he can get from them - and particularly from the US - if the standing of the UN is to be restored. He strongly supports reform of the world body, which did his candidature no harm in Washington.

Outgoing secretary-general Kofi Annan tried to make a start on ridding the organisation of corruption and overly bureaucratic operations, but some of his more important initiatives have been stalled in the General Assembly.

There is no time to lose in restoring the standing of the UN, given what is almost a daily roster of security or humanitarian threats, such as those in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iranian and North Korean nuclear disputes and the Darfur crisis in Sudan.

Mr Ban says, rightly, that the most urgent issues confronting the UN remain internal management reform and regaining the trust and confidence of member states and major stakeholders. It needs to promise less, deliver more and reduce the overlap between its agencies in delivery of services. Perhaps when it has tidied up its own backyard it can address difficult issues shelved in the past, like a broad agreement on the definition of terrorism and the use of pre-emptive force.

Despite the inevitable flaws of a co-operative body and its recent troubles, the UN still offers the best hope of resolution of conflict and alleviation of human suffering through international co-operation. The mild-mannered diplomat who will be its next chief says he may look soft but that he has inner strength when he needs it. He will need it, and often.


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Thursday, October 5, 2006

WELFARE
A reason to get off the safety net


C.K. LAU
   
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   Social workers have complained about a government scheme aimed at helping people get off the dole: they say it's virtually forcing them to pressure welfare recipients to accept low-pay jobs. The scheme puts the social workers in a difficult situation, they say, as they stand to receive a bonus for finding work for a target number of recipients.
The social workers' complaint raises a few questions: how should they be paid and their performance assessed? As for encouraging welfare recipients to find work, would it help to introduce a minimum wage?

  
Social workers have the unenviable job of counselling and organising suitable activities for people who are emotionally or materially deprived. As professionals, they are supposed to try their best to help the needy, and their personal interests should not affect the level of service they provide.

The bonus arrangement could be seen as an affront to their professionalism, as it tempts them to persuade welfare recipients to accept poorly paid jobs.

To be sure, social workers who take part in the scheme to help welfare recipients find work should not be likened to employment agents. The latter get paid only for finding the right recruits for employers, and finding work for job seekers.

Social workers have the rather specialised task of encouraging those who have been on the dole for a long time to muster the willpower to work for a living again. Many of their clients may not have a strong incentive to work, as Hong Kong does not have a time limit on welfare.

Yet, many people would probably object to paying social workers a fixed salary without regard for the number of welfare recipients they helped return to the working world. If that were the arrangement, would they all be equally enthusiastic about encouraging their clients to wean themselves off welfare?

How would social workers who have found work for many of their clients feel if they were paid no more than colleagues who have achieved zero placements? Even if we accept that every social worker is driven by a strong sense of professionalism, it shouldn't mean suitable incentives cannot be provided to reward those who are more effective.

Even so, the social workers' complaint about having to persuade welfare recipients to accept low-pay jobs does deserve a sympathetic hearing. At a press conference on Tuesday, several welfare recipients talked about being persuaded to accept jobs that pay as little as HK$14 an hour. A single mother with a 13-year-old son, who had been receiving HK$4,300 a month in welfare payments, said she now worked five days a month as a domestic worker for just HK$300 a month.

As the business and labour sectors continue to debate the case for introducing a minimum wage, a relevant consideration is how we can wean people off welfare when Hong Kong does not have a wage floor.

Employment and welfare are two sides of the same coin. Hong Kong does not have an official poverty line. But the income and asset limits for receiving welfare under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme are de facto poverty lines that affect the motivation to work.

Everyone who falls below those lines is entitled to welfare. Those who opt not to go on the dole have trouble making enough money to afford them a decent standard of living. So the incentive is just not there to encourage people to leave the welfare net.

Until a minimum wage is introduced, it will be impossible for the government to impose a time limit on welfare - the most effective weapon in reducing the number of welfare recipients.

C.K. Lau is the Post's executive editor, policy. ck.lau@scmp.com



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Friday, October 6, 2006

WAN CHAI'S BLUE HOUSE
Tourism shell or living history?


ADA WONG
   
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The Urban Renewal Authority and Housing Society announced their plan for a complete facelift of the 80-year-old Blue House in Wan Chai this year. The society has promised to foot a bill estimated at around HK$100 million.
The Blue House is a pre-war tenement-style historic building nestled in a quiet corner of Stone Nullah Lane off Queen's Road East. It was affectionately called the Blue House after its greyish walls were accidently painted marine blue by a Lands Department maintenance team.

Together with the nearby Bauhaus-style Wan Chai market, Blue House is one of the rare gems in the heart of old Wan Chai that has been left unscathed by the fervent pace of urban renewal. Civil society is heartened that the Blue House will not be bulldozed. The next question is: how should this heritage be conserved?

The plan of the two statutory bodies is to change the predominantly residential nature of this pre-war tong lau (low-rise walk-up) into yet another Covent Garden-like cultural tourism spot. Residents will leave. The space will be filled by a Chinese-style tea house, Chinese herbal medicine shops and other commercial activities. The open space at the back will be turned into a piazza suitable for the occasional Chinese traditional arts performance. Even a spa was mentioned.

While the initiative of the authority and society is laudable, their conservation plan is fundamentally flawed. First, the transformed Blue House will lose its cultural significance and become a "mummified" building with no connections to its past. Its colourful history will, ironically, be wiped out in the course of its "conservation". An artificial outer shell will remain for the sake of cultural tourism, while the more valuable but intangible social network will be destroyed.

People - thousands of them - have shaped the Blue House for almost a century. It exemplifies those sweet but difficult days of a bygone era. It tells us many stories of the struggles and perseverance of Hong Kong's first generation of immigrants. The Blue House welcomed many of them, and a small hospital and two schools were once housed on its upper floors.

Former residents are eager to tell their stories. One person who grew up there recalls vividly how, with three families squeezed into a small apartment, the children still managed to find a place to play badminton amid the bunk beds.

The Blue House is home to a tightly knit community. Tenants rely on an organic neighbourhood support system to survive and make ends meet.

The widely respected Burra Charter of 1999 - Australia's principles and procedures for conserving heritage places - defines conservation as "all the processes of looking after a place so as to retain its cultural significance".

I believe the cultural significance of the Blue House is found not only in its architectural style but in its rich history, as well. The proper documentation and conservation of that history will strengthen our appreciation of a way of life that we no longer know.

If the Urban Renewal Authority and Housing Society abide by the Burra Charter, then the residential nature of the Blue House should be retained. Long-time residents must have a choice of continuing to stay after the renovation. The grand plans of the authority and society are also flawed because local people did not participate in planning its conservation and adaptation.

The community is a stakeholder when it comes to decisions on "adaptation" which - according to the Burra Charter - is only permitted when the changes will have a minimal impact on the cultural significance of a place. The rule of thumb is: if the building is not in a dangerous state, minimum intervention is the best strategy.

Heritage is not renewable. Mistakes cannot be reversed. Hong Kong has already made so many irreversible mistakes in heritage conservation. Let's be sure we make the right decisions for the Blue House.

Ada Wong is chairwoman of Wan Chai District Council.

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Monday, October 9, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
Well-balanced children need work and play



   
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   Parents want the best for their children and it is therefore understandable that many in Hong Kong feel the need to instil in their offspring a passion for learning. Education is widely seen, after all, as a pathway to prosperity and happiness.
Whether wealth and happiness are one and the same is a hotly debated point; there is no doubt, though, that students with the best school marks get first choice when it comes to universities and courses. If they maintain their academic form they supposedly in line for the pick of jobs when they graduate.


It is hardly surprising therefore that a survey shows that more than 70 per cent of parents questioned believed their children's main activity out of school hours should be academically inclined. Revising home work was seen by six of every 10 parents as the best pastime, while 10 per cent preferred their children to read books. Only 11 per cent thought taking time out for a one-on-one chat was the most important activity, while hobbies and sports ranked low on the list.

This is a worrying revelation and the consequences are clearly borne out by the lack of laughter and smiles among the children on our streets. Generally, they have intense looks on their faces as they rush from school, presumably to the tutorials lined up by their parents.

There is nothing wrong with raising children to be successful by having them embrace learning. Limiting the time they spend watching television or playing computer games and rewarding them for reading books is to be encouraged. Sitting down as a family to go through a report card and to set goals for improvement shows a sense of caring and provides valuable input.

But children need more than study to develop into well-rounded adults. They must have time with their friends beyond an on-line chat room; physical activities such as sports or hiking are essential to ward off obesity; hobbies keep minds active and engender interest in matters non-academic; and for the sake of family relationships, parents must find time for a chat to get to know their offspring.

Hong Kong is not an easy environment in which to allow this to happen. Parks and playgrounds are limited in number, size and facilities; the high population density makes pastimes taken for granted in other affluent societies, such as bicycle riding, out of the question in many places; costs often make activities a once-in-a-while treat; long working hours and cramped living conditions can make family interaction less than perfect.

But the government has recognised the need for change and, since last year, has been phasing out the rote learning method of teaching. Improving lifestyles by providing more and better public and living spaces is now seen as an essential part of our city's development.

Similarly, parents need to recognise that their children need a balance between school work and time to themselves and with their family and friends. Education alone is not a guarantee of professional success or happiness.


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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

WORLD BANK
Corruption isn't the only issue


JOSEPH STIGLITZ
   
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   At the recent annual meeting of the World Bank, officials spokeextensively about corruption. It is an understandable concern: money the bank lends to developing countries that ends up in secret accounts - or finances some contractors' luxurious lifestyle - leaves a country more indebted, not more prosperous.
James Wolfensohn, the bank's previous president, and I are widely credited with putting corruption on the bank's agenda. We prevailed against opponents who regarded it as a political rather than an economic issue, and thus outside the bank's mandate.


But the World Bank would do well to keep four things in mind as it takes up the fight. First, corruption takes many forms, so a war on corruption has to be fought on many fronts. In some countries, overt corruption occurs primarily through campaign contributions that oblige politicians to repay major donors with favours. Smaller-scale corruption is bad, but systemic corruption of political processes can have even greater costs.

Second, it's fine for the World Bank to deliver anti-corruption sermons. But policies, procedures and institutions are what matter. In fact, the bank's procurement procedures are generally viewed around the world as a model to be admired.

But success in fighting corruption entails more than just good procurement procedures - avoiding, for instance, single-source, non-competitive bidding. Many other policies and procedures can be enacted that reduce incentives for corruption. For example, some tax systems are more corruption-resistant than others, because they curtail the discretionary authority of tax officials.

Third, the World Bank's primary responsibility is to fight poverty. This means that when it confronts a poor country plagued with corruption, its challenge is to figure out how to ensure that its own money is not tainted - and that it reaches the projects and people that need it.

Finally, while developing countries must take responsibility for rooting out corruption, there is much that the west can do to help. At a minimum, western governments and corporations should not be complicit. Every bribe that is taken has a payer, and too often the bribe payer is a corporation from an advanced industrial country.

Making all payments to governments transparent would bring further progress. Western governments could encourage this simply by tying this requirement to tax deductibility. It is equally important to address bank secrecy, which makes corruption easier by providing corrupt dictators with a safe haven for their funds.

Some of those who criticise the bank's stance on corruption worry that the campaign will be used as a "cover" for cutting aid to countries that displease the US administration.

The most strident criticism, however, comes from those who worry that the World Bank is straying from its mandate. Naturally, it must do everything it can to ensure that its money is well spent - which means fighting both corruption and incompetence.

But money itself will not solve all problems, and a single-minded focus on fighting corruption will not bring development. On the contrary, it might merely divert attention from other issues of no less importance for those struggling to lift themselves out of poverty.

Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate in economics. Copyright: Project Syndicate. www.project-syndicate.org



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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
China must reassess its position on Myanmar



   
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   Myanmar's military leaders do not threaten Asia like their North Korean counterparts; they are not known to have ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons, nor do they have soldiers lining the border of a neighbouring country as the North does with South Korea. But this is no benign regime that should be ignored, as the poor state of the nation and the atrocities committed against its people attest.
Just as with North Korea, the world needs to pressure the regime to change and ensure China, India and Russia, the nations propping up the junta through economic and military help, see the error of their ways. The three have not joined western and Southeast Asian nations in expressing concern about the junta. They have shunned imposing sanctions and used engagement for strategic benefit - a process which, given Myanmar's stagnation, is having no effect.


The generals who run Myanmar would like to have us think that they have the welfare of the 50 million people they rule at heart. Their reconvening of a constitutional convention yesterday was aimed at discussing the role of political parties and elections under a seven-stage plan to restore the democracy lost when the military seized power in 1962. They have agreed to let UN deputy secretary-general Ibrahim Gambari return next month.

These would seem to be moves in the right direction, but there is good reason to be sceptical about them. The junta has no wish to give up power, and experience has shown that it cannot be trusted.

The opposition National League for Democracy knows this only too well, which is why it has refused to take part in the 13-year-old constitution-drafting process. Denied the right to form a government despite winning elections in 1990, its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest. As the UN Security Council took up the issue of Myanmar for the first time last month, a fresh crackdown was launched on critics, more than 1,000 of whom are already jailed.

Myanmar has rich natural resources, yet is Southeast Asia's second-poorest nation. Bad nutrition levels, high disease rates and inadequate health facilities mean average life expectancy is just over 60 years. A quarter of the population lives in poverty. China's bid to have a higher international profile and to play more of a role in world affairs will be undermined if it continues to be protective of such a regime.

Beijing claims the generals pose no threat, and therefore objected to discussion of Myanmar at the Security Council. Yet it is precisely such governments that need to be talked about at the highest possible level because while they may not bother other nations, their own people are unnecessarily suffering.

For Myanmar's sake, China and its allies must set aside narrow economic and strategic interests and work with the rest of the world.


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Thursday, October 12, 2006

EDUCATION
A+ for kindergarten vouchers


C.K. LAU
   
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   The government has taken a significant step by extending the public subsidy to pre-primary education, opening a new route to funding kindergartens.


Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced yesterday that education vouchers would be issued to parents to help them pay kindergarten fees.

The new policy will make Hong Kong one of a few jurisdictions in the world to embrace, albeit partially, an education voucher scheme. The idea was first championed by renowned economist Milton Friedman more than 50 years ago.

The scheme is a major departure from the established mode of funding education. The government now funds designated public schools and universities directly.

Under the scheme, public money will go to parents - who will decide which kindergarten to spend it on.

Given our local circumstances, vouchers are an ideal way to subsidise kindergartens. Hong Kong has long had a thriving pre-primary sector, and there is almost universal enrolment of children between the ages of three and six in kindergartens.

At present, in terms of their curriculums, about 680 kindergartens are classified as local and more than 50 as international. The total student population stands at about 130,000. Most of them are non-profit-making.

With no direct government funding, kindergartens have long been used to living with market forces.

The survival of individual schools depends wholly on their appeal to parents and the demographic trends of their respective neighbourhoods.

Had the government opted to fund kindergartens directly, it would have had to embark on the difficult task of choosing which of them should receive public funding. It would also have had to decide which ones to close, as the student population continues to shrink. The whole exercise would have been a controversial one that could never please everyone.

But there's a major flaw in the voucher scheme as announced by Mr Tsang yesterday: it will apply only to non-profit-making kindergartens charging not more than HK$24,000 per student per year.

For those who feel that public funding should not be used to line the pockets of operators of profit-making kindergartens, the decision makes sense.

Yet, if the purpose of the voucher scheme is, in the words of Mr Tsang, "to support the family by easing the financial burden of parents", then the exclusion cannot be justified.

Arguably, every child should have the right to receive a subsidised education irrespective of the type of school his or her parents choose. Those who opt for private schools should not be penalised by being denied public funding.

Even if we accept that only non-profit-making kindergartens should be eligible for public subsidies, the decision to limit such funding to schools charging less than HK$24,000 is also questionable.

The cap is apparently aimed at barring kindergartens from raising their fees as a result of public funding. Even so, the limit is arguably too low, and may lead to the unintended effect of penalising kindergartens that charge fees beyond that level.

Despite these drawbacks, the adoption of the voucher scheme for kindergartens is a major breakthrough for Hong Kong. Let's hope it can be extended to other education sectors, in time.

This makes associate degree programmes the only area that receives no public funding. When resources are available, associate degree students should be issued vouchers to help them pay their fees.

C.K. Lau is the Post's executive editor, policy.ck.lau@scmp.com



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Friday, October 13, 2006

IRAN AND NORTH KOREA
The grip of US 'soft' power


JIM HOAGLAND
   
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   North Korea has, in its own inimitable fashion, paid tribute to a little-noticed US push to get the world's bankers to isolate regimes that promote nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Who else would claim to have conducted a nuclear weapons test - and then threaten more blasts to get their way in a US$24 million banking dispute? Don't they have any good lawyers in Pyongyang?
North Korea's efforts to blame its crossing of the nuclear-testing threshold on US "economic hostility" would be laughable - if the regime were not led by world-class paranoids and fantasists capable of believing their own odious propaganda. Americans do not have to believe it, however.


Such a regime may be beyond reasoning with or, even worse, deterring in a conventional sense, as the Bush administration seems to believe.

But Pyongyang's threats - if not its excuses - must be taken seriously, and met with new forms of containment and pressure. The same is true of Iran, the other major target of the US Treasury Department's efforts "to isolate bad actors from the global financial system" - by calling attention to their use of banks for rogue operations.

That description comes from Stuart Levey, the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. "If the objective was to put pressure on North Korea, well, we succeeded," said Mr Levey. He has joined Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt in travelling the globe to persuade other governments to examine and, where appropriate, cut financial links to Pyongyang and Tehran.

But the purpose of this effective new effort to exert pressure with "soft power" is much broader. According to Mr Levey, the Treasury Department is targeting people who are eminently deterrable: "People who are in business are very concerned about their reputations and do not want to get involved in illicit activity that is under scrutiny. They will make the decisions about whether they continue doing business or not. We don't make the decision for them." Mr Levey disputes North Korea's characterisation of US policy as being one of politically driven "sanctions".

"The United States effectively lifted sanctions against North Korea in 2000, and the Bush administration has not reimposed them," Mr Levey asserted. "What we are doing is calling attention to the risks in being involved in these transactions."

The first use of the heavy US financial hammer was against the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, which the Treasury identified last year as a "primary money-laundering concern" for Pyongyang. The bank, which operates under the control of the Chinese government, froze an estimated US$24 million in North Korean assets rather than risk losing US and other business.


North Korea clearly takes these financial pressures seriously. So must Iran. Squeezing the regime financially is probably the only hope of keeping Tehran from going nuclear. Iran was forced to announce three months ago that its oil production is declining - in large part, experts say, because of a long-term lack of new investment in the oil industry and the difficulty of getting new technology from abroad for its faltering fields.

Access to capital and advanced equipment will not have been helped by the US decision last month to exclude Bank Saderat, Iran's largest state-owned bank, from buying or selling dollars and other financial instruments from US banks. This is in response to the bank's role in transferring millions of dollars to terrorist groups.

In the early days of the Soviet Union, Lenin predicted that capitalists would eagerly sell him the rope he would use to hang them. He lost the bet when Moscow proved unable to pay for ruling an empire. The Treasury's sophisticated efforts to deny gangsters in North Korea and Iran access to global capital should not be abandoned because of the nuclear bluster from Pyongyang and Tehran.

Jim Hoagland is a Washington Post columnist.


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Monday, October 16, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
China must make sanctions work



   
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   The divergent response of China and other UN Security Council nations to the sanctions imposed on North Korea for apparently testing its first nuclear device would seem to foreshadow difficulties in enforcing the resolution. Whatever the statements of Chinese officials, however, now that the deal has been approved, Beijing must do its utmost to prevent Pyongyang from spreading or acquiring more nuclear materials and technology.
China has, after all, a firm position on this matter, as strongly expressed by the Foreign Ministry last week: "To bring about denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and oppose nuclear proliferation." For the sake of regional stability and its own security, ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons and ambitions should be Beijing's foreign policy priority.


Nonetheless, the contentious issue of inspecting cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea's ports, as stipulated by the resolution, is difficult for China, given its status as Pyongyang's foremost ally.

China is the nation most able to get the secretive country to scrap its nuclear ambitions. Provoking confrontation with a newly declared nuclear neighbour is the last thing Beijing wants - hence its reticence, along with fellow North Korean ally and neighbour Russia, to back the original wording of the resolution. This was done under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which leaves open a military option. The compromise was to preclude that threat. But the mainland has no choice, now that it has backed the finalised agreement, than to enforce its provisions.

How stringently mainland border and maritime officials do this is, on a case by case basis, up to the officers concerned. The US and European nations did not face the same sensitivities as China when drafting the resolution.

Beijing does not have the luxury of long-distance lambasting. While it has joined the rest of the world in condemning North Korea for threatening global security, it has to deal far more diplomatically with the problem on its doorstep.

Regardless of the difficulties, though, the Security Council's authority must also be preserved at all costs; resolutions approved must be abided by and enforced as closely as possible.

Whether China's ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya , meant to undermine that authority by saying after the vote that the mainland would not conduct any inspections is unclear in the absence of official reaction from Beijing. Having just voted for the resolution, he can hardly reject its provisions.

Whatever the difficulties, China must do its utmost to make the sanctions work. Only with strict enforcement will North Korea be persuaded to return to the dialogue that it broke away from in preference to proliferation.


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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

SINO-AUSTRALIAN RELATIONS
When ignorance is bliss


GREG BARNS
   
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   Australians like China. That's according to a public opinion survey released this month by the Lowy Institute, a foreign-policy focused think-tank based in Sydney. It appears that Australians are much more willing to ignore China's human rights violations and lack of democracy than is the case with Indonesia. Despite the latter's strides towards democracy within the past decade, Australians see their near northern neighbour in essentially negative terms.
But when it comes to assessing Australians' warmth of feeling towards other countries, China scores well. Sixty-one per cent of respondents felt positive about China. This places it only one percentage point behind Australia's traditional ally, the US, and only three points behind Japan - one of its largest trade partners. By contrast, only 50 per cent of Australians said they felt warmly about Indonesia. And China's rating could go higher, as 59 per cent of those surveyed believe relations are improving. By contrast, 47 per cent believe ties with Indonesia are worsening.


China seems to be trusted by Australians to act more responsibly than the US around the world. The survey records that while 38 per cent of respondents believe Beijing cannot be trusted to act responsibly in global affairs, 39 per cent think the same about Washington. And while there's global nervousness about China's rise as a global power, Australians seem relatively relaxed, ranking it last on a list of 13 threats to Australia's interests over the next decade.

But while the survey reveals a relatively positive disposition towards China, there is some ambivalence in these results. Eighty per cent trust China only "somewhat or not at all". No doubt, however, China's tough stance on North Korea in the past week will enhance its standing.

So why are Australians relatively optimistic and positive about China? The answer may lie in the contrasting attitude towards Indonesia.

Over the past decade, Indonesia has featured prominently in the Australian media and politics. Indonesian resistance to independence for East Timor contrasted with the efforts of the Australian leadership to ensure the birth of that nation seven years ago.

Then there have been high-profile cases of Australians being charged and punished for allegedly trafficking in drugs on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The Indonesian justice system is viewed by many Australians as corrupt, and particularly unfair to Australians. When a young Australian, Schapelle Corby, was jailed for 20 years for trafficking in cannabis, anti-Indonesian sentiment reached alarming levels in Australia.

The perceived leniency towards the perpetrators of the 2002 Bali bombings, in which 88 Australians were killed, has not helped, either.

In contrast, while there is some focus here on what an Australian-Chinese free-trade agreement might mean in terms of job losses and investment - and on whether Australia should sell uranium to China - it is a bit remote from the average Australian. China, it seems, can get away with being a dictatorship, while Indonesia's efforts to become a transparent democracy are not being recognised by Australians, if the survey is any guide.

Australian political commentator Paul Kelly says the local media is partly responsible for this view of the world.

Its "denigration of Indonesian democracy in contrast to its tolerance of China's dictatorship is entrenched and has passed into popular Australian sentiment", he wrote.


But if the media gives prominence to cases of Australians having their human rights abused by the Chinese authorities, or it begins to showcase examples of Chinese actions taking away Australian jobs, then China might find itself in Indonesia's shoes. For the moment, however, Australians are giving China a big tick.

Greg Barns is a political commentator in Australia and a former Australian government adviser.



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Wednesday, October 18, 2006

EDITORIAL/LEADER
Ignorance the biggest hurdle in fighting HIV



   
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   It is one thing for China's rulers in Beijing to make decisions that affect people's lives, but another thing entirely for the message to reach 1.3 billion people through layers of authority and officialdom at provincial, city and local levels.
How much harder it must be then for Beijing to change social attitudes. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have tried, going to some lengths to remove the social stigma of HIV/Aids and raise the profile of the disease on the national health agenda.


Both have made televised personal visits to patients to help break down prejudice. The number of new cases has continued to rise, however, and local mainland officials have been blamed for disregarding national policy on prevention and treatment.

An example has come to light in Harbin , Heilongjiang , where residents and the police were upset by a public lecture for sex workers on prevention and treatment of HIV/Aids. The lecture was held by the Harbin Disease Prevention and Control Centre's Aids Prevention and Control Institute. Many critics said the health authorities should work with police to get prostitutes arrested; the police said the lecture was unacceptable and made them "feel uncomfortable".

However, an online poll conducted by Sina.com showed overwhelming support for the lecture among a more broadly representative group of nearly 5,000. This is encouraging, because education to overcome ignorance about HIV/Aids and promote safe-sex practices remains the most effective means of combating the disease.

Today's report in which a senior central government health official says China is becoming like Africa in the way the virus is transmitted shows that Beijing should leave no stone unturned in its efforts to see that the message does get through.

Figures given by Hao Yang , deputy director general of the bureau of diseases prevention and control at the Ministry of Health, are disturbing: HIV/Aids has spread beyond high-risk groups such as drug users, prostitutes and homosexuals to become a "generalised epidemic"; 48 per cent of new cases last year arose from sexual relations; 1 per cent of all pregnant women are infected.

Regional health officials have long warned against a false sense of security that Asia is shielded from the devastating effects of Aids in some African countries. The possibility that the virus could easily spread into the general population increases as Asians embrace less conservative values, with more young people having casual sex.

In Hong Kong, HIV infections are increasing three times faster than 20 years ago. The Department of Health puts this down mainly to unsafe gay sex. However, given that Hong Kong may be vulnerable to the spread of HIV/Aids originating from the mainland or the rest of Asia, education in disease prevention and easy access to testing remain important.


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