I don’t feel isolated, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying insists
Leader reveals his thoughts in interview with dentist Eugene Chan, who is then appointed to head RTHK’s board of advisers
The “ABC” or “Anything But CY” slogan may be picking up steam for next year’s leadership election, but Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is insisting he is not feeling isolated or lonely at the top.
In an interview with Metro Daily published over two days, Hong Kong’s top official, who is expected to seek another five-year term next March, dismissed suggestions he had few friends left.
“If I had no friends, I couldn’t have performed so many public and social duties. These tasks have to be done together with other people,” Leung told his supporter and dentist Eugene Chan Kin-keung, who was invited by the newspaper to conduct the interview – and who was appointed by Leung on Friday as chairman of broadcaster RTHK’s board of advisers.
A video clip of the interview released on Thursday showed Leung, Chan and another interviewer in the kitchen of Government House, preparing dumplings together. A second clip on Friday showed Leung talking about his friends.
The “ABC” slogan was first floated at the last chief executive race in 2012, when Leung successfully ran against former chief secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen. The phrase surfaced again recently and was adopted as the election platform by some candidates for the Legislative Council elections in September.
Leung said on Thursday he would welcome competition if he was running, when asked to comment on the possibility of outgoing Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing and Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah joining the race for the top job.
Both Tsangs have indicated a conditional interest in running. The finance minister said he would join the race if “the job can help contribute to society”, while the Legco chief said he would run to offer a genuine choice if no one else wanted to challenge Leung.
The RTHK Programme Staff Union said it found Leung’s choice for board chairman “extremely bizarre and questionable”, and expressed reservations about Chan upholding editorial independence at the public broadcaster.
Chan, a former member of government think tank the Central Policy Unit, had suggested in a 2013 article that editorial freedom was “mythologised” by the news industry, and shareholders’ interests were more important in a commercial world.
The union warned that Chan’s appointment would have a far-reaching impact, as the board was tasked to provide advice to the director of broadcasting on editorial policies, control programme quality and even process public complaints.
“If we let an invisible hand reach towards RTHK once again, how do we start building trust between staff and management?”
The board must start improving transparency and publish meeting details and minutes so as to allow the public to monitor the public broadcaster, the union demanded.
An RTHK spokeswoman said the broadcaster recognised the structure and composition of the board of advisors when it was set up in 2010, of which membership was to be decided by the chief executive.
She said she hoped Chan could exercise his duties and do his utmost to improve programme quality.
