A politically neutral civil service has always been regarded as the bedrock of Hong Kong society. In times of change and uncertainty, Hong Kong people can draw comfort and reassurance from an administrative machinery that will remain unclogged and untainted by political favouritism.

It is often said that a strong and relatively clean bureaucracy has largely shielded Japan from the well-documented vagaries of the country's politicians. In Britain, political excesses have often been subtly neutralized by the faceless bureaucrats of Whitehall.

The Hong Kong civil service is largely based on the British model. Its huge reputation for efficiency and integrity is not derived from political passion, but rather from the quality of the people and the discipline of the system.

Generous terms of employment, comparable to the best in the private sector, are offered to attract the best and brightest into the civil service. New recruits will learn to follow the procedures and adhere to the discipline dictated by an administrative system steeped in tradition and protocol.

Outsiders may criticize the system for its apparent rigidity. They may take pleasure in deriding the system's prescribed formalities. By doing so, they risk undermining the core values of a system that underlines the good governance which has been taken for granted by Hong Kong people.

Faithful to the principle established under such a system, Hong Kong's senior civil servants may give the impression of being dispassionate and, at times, arrogant. Such are the typical traits of a professional administrator.

This has become a problem only because too many civil servants in the past were inappropriately thrust into the public limelight too often to explain government policies and justify unpopular actions deemed necessary by the chief executive in council. Civil servants are usually ill equipped to be public communicators. Some civil servants, with a certain degree of justification, may consider such tasks to be beneath them.

To maintain the integrity of the civil service, the Hong Kong government must consider with great reservation the proposal allowing civil servants to take leave to pursue a temporary career in politics as elected officials. The idea is to boost support for the government in the legislature and in other grass-roots agencies and organizations.

But such benefits are far from assured. Civil servants, earnest they may be, have never had any training in the art of crowd-pleasing and vote-getting. With the exception of perhaps Chief Executive Donald Tsang, who rose through the ranks, no government official in Hong Kong has ever won public support based on personal charisma.

When forced by circumstance to engage in public debates, quite a few senior government officials come across as being excessively preachy and condescending. The chances of them winning elected office seem remote.

But the potential damage a proposal like this could do not just to the public image of the civil service but to the very foundation of the entire establishment should give the government pause for thought. Acceptance of the proposal is tantamount to revoking the basic principle of neutrality that has been held sacrosanct by the Hong Kong civil service from the day it was founded. This certainly is not something that one would tamper with lightly under any circumstances.

Destroying this core value would invariably open the civil service of Hong Kong to all kinds of abuse. Political expedience would take precedent over established practices and procedures. Meanwhile, any inhibitions about cultivating or dispensing political favours, which are just other forms of corruption, at the expense of public interest would be removed.

At a time when Hong Kong's relevance to China's economic growth is brought into question, there is every reason for the Hong Kong government to preserve and strengthen the established institutions that have contributed so much to Hong Kong's past economic and social progress. The efficient civil service is the pride of Hong Kong. Any suggestion that could undermine its integrity must be rejected.

Email: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/20/2006 page4)