Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, together with Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah and Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, held a press conference yesterday to explain the ins and outs of the housing development plan in Wang Chau, Yuen Long. The explanation is clear and convincingly shows: everything concerning the Wang Chau development project has followed normal procedures and been pursued steadily as planned, and there is no "transactions of interest" in the whole process, let alone "collusion between the government, businesses, rural forces and the triads". Legislator-elect Eddie Chu Hoi-dick's accusation in this regard is utterly absurd and unreasonable.
As a matter of fact, it could be said that the sober truth about the so-called Wang Chau incident has already been fully revealed. It roughly goes like that: the Leung Chun-ying administration began to proactively look for land for housing development shortly after it was sworn in, and in 2013 stretches of land in Wang Chau, Yuen Long and Queen's Hill respectively caught its fancy, on which it intended to build 20,000 Public Housing and Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) units, equivalent to the total number of Public Housing units built in Hong Kong in a whole year.
Thereafter following adopted practice, Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung and other officials concerned began to meet and lobby Wang Chau's rural leaders, so as to sound them out and listen to their opinions. But at the first meeting they were given the cold shoulder. Chairman and First Vice Chairman of Ping Shan Rural Committee Tsang Shu-wo and Tang Tat-sin and others opposed any change in the used of land, arguing that there were business operations on Wang Chau's brown land such as warehouses, logistics, car repairing shops and carparks, and it concerned the demand for employment and social benefits.
Afterwards, both sides met again but the issue remained unsettled. After careful consideration and deliberation, the Transport and Housing Bureau proposed to first develop Phase 1 for 4,000 Public Housing units which was the least disputed, leaving out Phases 2 and 3 for later consideration. Leung Chun-ying approved this at a Wang Chau working group meeting.
These are all the ins and outs of the so-called Wang Chau incident. Anyone who is slightly familiar with the custom and tradition in Hong Kong society and unbiased would agree that this is an extremely ordinary affair. Despite some people's dissatisfaction with the rural forces in New Territories for always making big fusses, despite that some people think the "lobbying" in advance as suspiciously to "bully the faint-hearted and fear the stouthearted," nevertheless no one can deny it that if the government wants to develop Wang Chau and build public housing in large scale in the area, then it has to seek rural forces' consent and cooperation and to make proper arrangement for business operations on the land there. Otherwise, it is impossible to carry out land resumption for development, even if it had the "primordial powers"
Therefore, the government eventually decided to build 4,000 Public Housing units first, which was not only correct but also quite wise. Otherwise, with dispute and antagonism lasting forever, there would be no single Public Housing unit built let alone 4,000, and the so-called 17,000-unit project would sound just like a fantasy in the Arabian Nights.
In fact, it is a focus of the Leung Chun-ying administration in past four years or so to try to solve the problem of housing difficulties and especially to provide public housing for grass-roots citizens and help young people purchase housing. Its effort and determination in this regard is beyond doubt. One of the headaches for the government is the difficulty to find land for development. Opinions of local communities must be listened to, while the list of applicants for public rental housing (PRH) grow longer and longer. How to make a choice and achieve balance between the two indeed becomes a tough problem and challenge for those charged with governance, hence understanding and support from social personages and citizens is of the utmost importance in this regard.
Eddie Chu is always active in New Territories, and he is fully aware of the problems relating the Wang Chau development plan. Yet he takes opportunities to instigate conflicts and fabricate so-called "collusion between the government, businesses, rural forces and the triads" to reap political capital for himself. His motive is execrable and disgusting.
22 September 2016
