Q: How do you see your chances being 1 of 5 in fighting for the limited votes?
I see this as how to bridge the gap between various really quite different professions, obviously trying to run on a single ticket is quite radical as often
Hong Kong people like to see the more the better. However I think I am being realistic as I know the limit as what a
LegCo can do and achieve in one term. I think some of the promises made by other candidates in their political platform are almost impossible to fulfilled and only leads to disappointments. In reality promising the earth, trying to be vague are often the ploy with many politicians in the West do and people do see through that,
Hong Kong political scene however are quite new so there is a tendency to over promises. This as we all know is a major problem associated with
Hong Kong, the government including our own CE who have been the most competent Financial Secretary and Chief Secretary in the past but suffer in recent times as people aspirations
and high expectations for him was drum-up to be too high.
Similarly we see the same for many members of the
Legco and heads
of the political parties. But saying yes to everyone and promising everything may get you into
politics, but sooner the later people will find out and just get disillusion when things are not done. By concentrating on one doable but important issue, one goal which I think could be achievable within a 4 years term. I think I can at least do that for the Electors. Not that the other issues are not important but these will be tackle one by one as time and as the economy changes anyway, what is decided now may not be the same in a year time. But the problem of the greenhouse gases and pollutants in our atmosphere does not changes.
I see this as several issues:
1) As a Director running a building surveying division, I managed surveyors as well as working with architects,
QS and contractors. In some way I probably a lot more closer to the Quantity Surveyors and Building Surveyors than the GP surveyor. I know for instance that for many of the building surveyors has felt that they have been left out of recent improvements in the property markets, in fact we are now talking about a down turn already and many BS are saying what has happen? In similar terms we do a lot of joint projects with land surveyors so I can also see synergy in that too. We do worked quite a lot with government architects and surveyors in renovations, maintenance, on enforcements of unauthorized building works, inspection and hand over of HA flats etc. I can hence also say that I know most of the Electors in terms of what they expects of a
LegCo member.
2) For most of my career I have worked along side
QS on several infrastructure and development projects for the railway corporations, including sitting inside a project offices (AKA working in these a metal container shed) , I am quite familiar with the the workload and aspirations of
QS, for instance, the portable nature of the skill sets of the
QS are in fact a strong selling point allowing many to venture into new market such as mainland, middle east such as Dubai and other parts of the world in consulting, contracting and as clients. The biggest
problem that QS has found that they have not been represented well by successive
LegCo and the
HKIS who are now primarily an GP organisation.
QS works together or with architects, engineers and contractors but rarely with GP, so it will not be surprising that they feel left out of many issues.
3) On Green building, as one of few people amongst the candidates that has written and presented in conference on the issues of sustainability and the effects of global warming. I think there is a growing number of electors that share the same concerns as me, as to what kind of world
Hong Kong will be like in the near future, what kind of environment will we be providing for our children? For me it is this reason alone that I am standing for
LegCo - the lingering question am I doing enough? I can at least say that I have try my best.
4) Unfortunately, being labeled as "the expert" at conferences does meant that I do need to do a considerable amount of research on this topic. The problem is the more I get myself involved the more worry I get, in fact the word 'scary' come to mind, scared that the problem is actually much more serious than it is and the fact that most people including the government in
Hong Kong are unaware or oblivious to the fact that many parts of
Hong Kong could really be flooded well within our life time. Imagine we may need to build tall wall defenses along the coastline?
5) Anyway, this is the reason I have try and provide some practical solutions as to how environmental could become central to how we can develop and construct and maintain buildings , as many countries and cities around the world have already started. Also why I have given in greater detail within my "platform" as to how sustainable development could really be implemented by changes to the building ordinance, code of practices etc as well as land and planning, not just giving lip service as "green is good".
To get this message through is in fact much more important to me.
Many architects are already really quite focused on the environment and sustainable construction. But I hope that they will share the same passion that I have on this issues and do something about, not just talking.
In the end pushing for
legislation and new sustainability codes is the only way forward.
(Credit: Image courtesy of British Antarctic Survey)
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