失治之城——掙扎求存的香港

by 顧汝德, Leo F. Goodstadt

A City Mismanaged traces the collapse of good governance in Hong Kong, explains its causes, and exposes the damaging impact on the community’s quality of life. Leo Goodstadt argues that the current well-being and future survival of Hong Kong have been threatened by disastrous policy decisions made by chief executives and their principal officials. Individual chapters look at the most shocking examples of mismanagement: the government’s refusal to implement the Basic Law in full; official reluctance to halt the large-scale dilapidation of private sector homes into accommodation unfit for habitation; and ministerial toleration of the rise of new slums. Mismanagement of economic relations with Mainland China is shown to have created severe business losses. Goodstadt’s riveting investigations include extensive scandals in the post-secondary education sector and how lives are at risk because of the inadequate staff levels and limited funding allocated to key government departments. This book offers a unique and very powerful account of Hong Kong’s struggle to survive.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2019

Reviews

[Vijay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would venture to say that this book published in 2018, would run foul of the new National Security Law, namely publishing seditious materials which are malicious and harm the government. Self-censorship will be the new regime for any book published after 1st July 2020

The book is a good and very interesting read. It covers the social welfare fabric in society and deals with a policy of small government, housing, health, ageing population and very importantly the relationship (or lack of it) between the HKSAR and the central CCP government. I actually hadn't realised that HK wasn't important to the CCP other than as a showpiece and the political aspirations of recovering Taiwan back into its fold.

The HKSAR government lacks insight and most of all is out of touch with the grassroots. Surprisingly that two SAR Chief Executives rose from the grassroots to lead the SAR, but yet have astonishingly completely ignored their plight. Housing is a sore point for HK. Then there is a mandatory retirement fund that completely fails to provided sufficient funding for the retiree.

The government leans too much on the private sector in formulating public policy. You'll see the creation of the Competition Commission and its related ordinance, but you'll never see the government pursuing glaringly obviously cartels that exist. Think supermarket the two chains that sell super expensive produce. Instead, the Competition Commission will pursue cases against interior decorating firms. Think als0 the gas stations that never reduce gas prices, but always raise them on the blink of an eye. When oil fell well below $50 a barrel, fuel pumps did not budge an inch and show the same prices as when prices were above $100 a barrel.

HK is a city mismanaged. See also after 2018, what happened to it. The government will not change.

[Ric Poh Peng Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear book on how the current government of Hong Kong SAR started to fail ever since the 1997 with their emphasis on budget controls and fear mongering.

However, this book sometimes contain too much repeated information that it can be quite hard to swallow after a while.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful

A very insightful reading of the situation, explain in simple wording.

Easy to read while offering a lot to learn.

[Hans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this, and you get a sense of how the well-ran British-colonial Hong Kong is ruined, by the politicians in power, kow-tow-ing to CN, cutting government resources for no-reason even the city had been growing, delaying possible solutions (even when there was a pandemic in 2003), ignoring signs of crippling.

Goodstadt ended this book in 2018. What would he have written of his insightful observations if he had the health to survive 2019-20.