At 5pm on February 28, 2002, Justice Pang Kin-kee made a televised announcement on the result of the election of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR. The "winner", according to Justice Pang, was the incumbent Chief Executive, Tung Chee Hwa, who will now serve another 5-year term. It wasn't much of a victory. In fact, there wasn't even an election. Since Tung Chee Hwa was the only candidate nominated, he was re-elected by default. Not only were there no other candidates, but Hong Kong citizens had no right to vote. Only members of an elite, non-elected 800-member electoral committee have the right to nominate the Chief Executive. As such the election was a farce, and it only became more farcical when the Electoral Commission, the mainstream press and various foreign governments congratulated the former shipping tycoon on his "victory." This victory was assured well over six months ago, as the political elite in Beijing and the economic elite in Hong Kong reaffirmed their support for Tung and his pro-business administration.

February 28 - Less than an hour before Tung Chee Hwa's 're-election', Chung Kwai Keung, member of the committee of the Hong Kong Buildings Management and Security Workers General Union, reads a statement on behalf of protesting workers outside the Central Government Offices.


Tung Chee Hwa claims, "I have heard your voices!" But he clearly hasn't heard their voices.




Joined by trade unionists in a mass protest against Tung Chee Hwa's government, elderly working class residents from a public housing estate discuss their concerns with HKCTU General Secretary Lee Cheuk Yan.

Contract Workers Protest:

On January 8, 2002, the Government Employees Solidarity Union organised a protest over the contracting out of public services. Contract workers employed by private companies holding tenders for street cleaning from the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), staged the protest action outside the Central Government Offices. Wearing masks to hide their identities for fear of retribution by private contracting companies, they demanded direct employment by the government. The workers put forward three demands:

(1) The government must stop contracting out public services and workers already employed by private contractors must eventually be directly employed by the government;

(2) The government must strictly supervise existing contract companies and enforce the labour law;

(3) Those companies violating the labour law must be punished and in the worst cases contracts must be canceled.

Despite 422 reported cases of violations by contract companies last year, less than half were reprimanded and none lost their contracts.

Click here for an earlier article on the FEHD contract workers.

*Click here to download the full March 2002 issue of Union Action in PDF format.

March 3 - Elderly public housing residents demonstrate 'tai chi', parodying the government "pushing away" its responsibility and giving the "thumbs down" to Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa.

On October 28 last year, Hu Jintao, China's vice president and likely successor to President Jiang Zemin, praised Tung's leadership as "efficient and effective." He endorsed Tung's second term, stating that: "I believe Hong Kong can overcome its difficulties under the leadership of Mr Tung." At the same time billionaire Hong Kong tycoons Li Ka-shing and Henry Fok declared their public support for Tung's second term. Finally, during a visit to Burma in December last year, President Jiang Zemin stated clearly that: "I believe he will be elected." This was not just an expression of personal support, but a warning that Tung's re-election should not be opposed. And it wasn't. Within hours of Tung's "post-victory" speech, Jiang Zemin congratulated him for "being elected unopposed."

But in another sense he was opposed - and very strongly. This opposition was not expressed through the ballot box (since Hong Kong's 6.7 million citizens had no access to the ballot), but in the streets. In the months leading up to Tung Chee Hwa's re-appointment widespread street protests, petitions and popular opinion polls expressed clear opposition to a second term. Over 50,000 signatures were collected by the Coalition Against Second Term on July 1, 2001, while large-scale protests calling for universal suffrage under the slogan "one person, one vote" have been held regularly since June. In addition to this, surveys showed that more than two-thirds of Hong Kong citizens were opposed to Tung Chee Hwa's second term - a popular sentiment that has only grown stronger now that he has become Chief Executive for another 5 years.

In his "post-victory" speech, Tung Chee Hwa declared: "I have heard your voices!" Yet if he had heard the voices of protest he would have stepped down long ago. More importantly, the government would have been forced to introduce universal suffrage. But while the voices of protest are echoing in the streets, Tung Chee Hwa only has ears for big business and the political elite in Beijing, since these are the only voices that matter under the present political system.

Nonetheless, the voices of protest that Tung refuses to hear are getting louder. Only four days after his re-appointment over 1,300 people gathered in Central to protest against the policies of his pro-business government. Working class residents from public housing estates, the elderly, trade unionists and social workers joined together to condemn the government's continued attack on the poor and its failure to alleviate the hardship faced by working people. The demands of this coalition of 60 grassroots organizations, including HKCTU, focus on livelihood protection measures such as unemployment benefits, a 30% cut to public housing rents, and government action to create jobs. These demands come at a time when unemployment has reached its highest level in three decades (6.7%) and bankruptcies are up from 1,132 in 1997 to 10,217 in 2001 - an increase of 900%.

In fact, Tung Chee Hwa's unpopularity rose dramatically following his Policy Address on October 10 last year precisely because people were angered by his failure to offer solutions to the unemployment crisis and his continued rejection of public spending for livelihood protection. In his Policy Address Tung promised to create 30,000 jobs to alleviate the unemployment crisis. However, nearly all of these jobs are temporary. Included are 8,000 short-term jobs in public sanitation (street and public toilet cleaning), environmental services, health care and welfare, 4,000 in security services and 20,000 in the improvement and repair of public works, including slope and drainage facilities. In particular, the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will "create" 2,600 jobs through contracting-out to private companies (see Union Action December 2001). In response, HKCTU's Chief Executive, Elizabeth Tang, pointed out that: "Temporary jobs only solve temporary problems. But we are now facing a long-term problem. The government should create more permanent posts." She also criticised the contradictory approach of the Government: "On the one hand, they contract out services to cut costs. On the other, they create cheap temporary jobs." (SCMP, October 11, 2001)

It was precisely these workers employed in temporary jobs under FEHD out-sourcing that protested at the Central Government Offices on January 8, 2002, to demand direct, long-term employment.

Throughout January a series of joint workshops for public sector workers was organized by HKCTU, as well as open forums and press conferences designed to bring public attention to the implications of the government's attack on the public sector. These activities not only targeted the government's attempts to pass the burden to working people through public sector cuts and privatization, but also challenged calls by the pro-business Liberal Party for a 10% cut to civil servants' salaries. This proposal led to over 2,000 responses to a discussion list on HKCTU's website, a press conference, and a protest outside the Liberal Party headquarters on February 14.

On February 22, 2002, HKCTU and two of its affiliates, the Association of Government Technical & Survey Officers and the Association of Government Cartographic Staff, mobilized to support a protest action by the Architectural Services Department Staff Union (not affiliated to HKCTU), which was protesting against government cuts and out-sourcing. Last year both the Association of Government Technical & Survey Officers and the Association of Government Cartographic Staff held similar strike actions. While HKCTU and its affiliates supported ongoing protest action by the Architectural Services Department Staff Union on February 22, the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) urged staff to return to work and end their protest. Instead, they joined with HKCTU in continuing their protest action. It is this voice - the voice of workers' solidarity - that Tung Chee Hwa is so afraid of hearing.