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Does anyone really suppose that Hong Kong has been following the wrong path? That we've made a mess of things? That 35 years of uninterrupted growth is a sign of fundamental error?
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What's the right way, the Hong Kong way, of doing things? Low taxes. Prudent spending which because it's prudent goes steadily on upwards. Up 50 per cent in real terms on care for the elderly in three years. We don't interfere with business. Don't prop up the failures. Don't subsidise the successes. We look to the long-term, and we know that free lunches aren't the way to invest in that long term. If you only take decisions on the basis that they may be popular tomorrow morning, the long term and its bonuses never come. And, by the way, you aren't always very popular tomorrow morning either.
Funnily enough, the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, was telling his party two weeks ago that Europe had to follow these lessons in order to compete with Asian economies like Hong Kong. It's an important lesson for Europe. But we shouldn't forget it ourselves.
It's beyond '97 though, that the real worries focus. Why pretend otherwise? It's better, healthier, more sensible, to face up to those anxieties openly, rather than make your own private post-'97 arrangements while declaring that there's nothing to worry about.
What do people worry about? Simple. That things are going to change. The way we are governed. The way we do business. The way we live. And when these things are threatened, it doesn't make sense to brush it all under the carpet, hope that no one will notice, and keep your fingers crossed that all will somehow be all right come the day.
What Hong Kong has to go on doing is making clear that it cares. Making clear that it expects promises about its way of life to be kept. Making clear that guarantees of the survival of our system are not there to be redefined on a speciously legalistic whim.
The best guarantee for Hong Kong, and I shall never tire of saying this, is Hong Kong. If we want things to stay as they are, and if we say that politely but firmly, then they will. Or at the very least, the outcome we want is much more likely.
People outside look with admiration at what Hong Kong has achieved. The whole world will cheer when we go as we can - from strength to strength.
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