Stephen Vines, SCMP – Updated on Feb 13, 2009
Very occasionally someone comes up with a brilliant idea for improving Hong Kong and, almost always, it strikes terror in the hearts of the bureaucrats who run this place. The architect Rocco Yim Sen-kee has had an idea of this kind. It involves creating a magnificent green lung in the middle of Hong Kong Island, running from the Zoological and Botanical Gardens in Central to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. This green corridor would be achieved by linking existing parks with a network of boulevards surrounded by trees and other vegetation stretching from above Central to the harbourfront and creating a zone of calm in the midst of bustle and pollution.
The ingenuity of the plan lies in the way it links what exists with what could be built with relatively little effort. But an enormous amount of determination and vision for it involves cutting (very modestly) into the fortress which Government House has become and possibly infringing on the new government palace, or headquarters as it is formally known – which, as it happens, Mr Yim has designed.
You can almost sense the nervous twitching of the bureaucrats as they contemplate an idea that involves such revolutionary thinking. Indeed, it would not be surprising if those on the front line of obstructing new ideas were already reaching for a familiar set of adjectives to put down the plan. In bureaucrat-speak, these would include assertions that the plan is far too idealistic (a very bad word in government circles), that Mr Yim is well intentioned but naive (a catch-all description of anything that requires imagination), and, of course, there is always the trump card of declaring the scheme impractical because it involves a lot of work.
By coincidence, on the day Mr Yim revealed his plan, an alliance of non-governmental organisations launched an appeal to the Town Planning Board to impose a height restriction on the latest official plan for destroying the historic Central Police Station complex which is now in the hands of that well-known conservation body, the Jockey Club.
It’s the same old story – the government is full of ideas for destroying Hong Kong’s heritage and ominously challenged when it comes to building anything new that is less than ghastly. Anyone doubting bureaucrats’ love of the ugly and absurd need only glance at the Central Library in Causeway Bay.
Meanwhile, a growing number of citizens have decided enough is enough; the destruction of Hong Kong’s heritage in the name of progress has gone too far, and they are arguing that the government should no longer try measuring progress by the amount of concrete poured but should look at ways of improving the environment on a human scale.
Mr Yim’s plan provides an ingenious way of better utilising the precious few green spaces in the middle of the city, even though it should be noted that there are probably more concrete than green areas in both the Victoria and Hong Kong parks. This plan would not create anything resembling a natural green habitat but it would cleverly carve something special out of the scarce green areas.
Why, then, is it close to certain that the bureaucrats (and their good friends in the property development
community) will oppose a scheme of this kind? It is not that the bureaucrats are necessarily full of bad intentions or that they are simply too lazy to work on a scheme that requires more effort. Such an assertion is unfair, particularly to some of those in the bureaucracy who are genuinely trying to create a better environment.
However, institutionally, the bureaucracy is inclined to avoid plans for transforming the existing infrastructure. Instead, bureaucrats love grand plans that involve knocking things down and building something grand anew. They see such schemes as their legacy projects and even dare to hope that one will eventually bear their name. If anyone deserves recognition for a great idea, it is Mr Yim but, alas, he is not a bureaucrat.
Stephen Vines is a Hong Kong-based journalist and entrepreneur