Tung must rise above politics
It has become customary to rate the performance of holders of high office at the end of their first 100 days. So everybody is doing just that with Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa who, by coincidence, marks his "centenary" with his first state-of-the- territory address in the legislature today.
Given that few leaders have anything much to show after 100 days, such ratings are obviously irrelevant.
Still, it has not prevented the media, politicians, businesspeople and others from giving their assessments and offering the usual plethora of advice and recommendations to put Mr. Tung on the right track.
Invariably they talk at cross-purposes and if Mr. Tung were to seriously take heed of all the proffered advice we would all be in a mess.
Unquestionably, Mr. Tung has spent the first 100 days defusing the highly charged political atmosphere left behind by the departing British.
This was necessary to boost local and international confidence both in Hong Kong's investment climate and in his stewardship. In this he has been remarkably successful.
This, and this alone, has been his sole achievement. In saying this we are not denigrating anything else that Mr. Tung might have done. But this was probably the major task he set for himself in this initial period of governance.
Most of those legislative measures, for which he has been lambasted by ill-advised liberals, were necessitated by the Basic Law or the Preparatory Committee which had been empowered to set up the first Special Administrative Region government.
Mr. Tung has had little time for anything else. From today, however, Mr. Tung will be on his own.
He will be outlining his program for the year ahead. Expectations are so high, especially in the area of housing, that Mr. Tung will have to be a superman to meet all of them.
The final years of British rule saw political reforms at the forefront. In rating Mr. Tung's performance, let us hope he has a much broader view of Hong Kong's hopes and aspirations.
-- The Hong Kong Standard