TNAG-2119-FCO40-3025-Future-of-Hong-Kong-general-1990 — Page 62

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and large do not have confidence in the future, nor do they trust

the Chinese government. At the same time, they also increasingly

harbor mistrust of the British government as the interests of

Britain and Hong Kong are more and more perceived to be in

conflict.19

Political reforms, though moderate, still threaten the

political dominance of civil servants, generating among them a

growing sense of unease and frustration. Though they give verbal

support to democracy, they do not have confidence that democratic

government is likely to be achieved in Hong Kong. They are not

committed to adapt themselves to a more open mode of political

operation. As a result, they lament the decline of political

supremacy and have behavioral difficulties in dealing with the

new political challenge. 20 It is thus not surprising that 'to the

extent that these senior public administrators supported

democratic government, they also demonstrated a stronger

inclination to leave the territory by 1997.21

19 Terry T. Lui and Terry L. Cooper, 'Hong Kong Facing China: Civil Servants' Confidence in the Future, Administration & Society, Vol. 22, No. 2 (August 1990), p. 159; Terry L. Cooper and Terry T. Lui, 'Democracy and the Administrative State: The Case of Hong Kong, Public Administration Review, Vol. 50, No. 3 (May/June 1990), p. 338; and Ian Scott, 'Sino-British Agreement and Political Power in Hong Kong, Asian Pacific Community, No. 31 (Winter 1986), pp. 6-12.

20

Lau Siu-kai and Kuan Hsin-chi, Chinese Bureaucrats in a Modern Colony: The Case of Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Centre for Hong Kong Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986); Kathleen Cheek- Milby, 'The Changing Political Role of the Hong Kong Civil Servant, 'Pacific Affairs, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Summer 1989), pp. 220- 34 and The Civil Servant as Politician: The Role of the official Member of the Legislative Council,' in Kathleen Cheek-Milby and Miron Mushkat (eds.), Hong Kong: The Challenge of Transformation

(Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong), pp. 256-91.

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