Undersecretaries Under Fire
By Chip Tsao | published Aug 19, 2010
In the midst of a public outcry over their alleged, persistent incompetence, the 19 “undersecretaries” and “political assistants” appointed two years ago by the government have been punished with a salary freeze. Despite this, each one of them still earns a higher salary than the US Secretary of State. A monthly income of HK$220,000 (US$28,000) for an “undersecretary,” or to put it bluntly, for what has been called a batch of “novice politicians” and “lightweight Beijing-friendly political lackeys,” could certainly make someone like Hillary Clinton feel as if she’s working for a third world government.
Lined up in front of media cameras two years ago, their academic qualifications were grandly rolled out in exacting detail. For example, Dr. Gabriel Matthew Leung (an impressive Romanized name), Undersecretary of Food and Health, was reported to be holding a master’s degree from the University of Western Ontario. If you are not sure where that is, just call any Hong Kong Canadian immigrant to be informed that it is a decent yellow-bricked university in the town of London (not to be mistaken for the capital of Britain), about 100 miles outside Toronto. Dr. Leung might have been aware of this apparent geographic inadequacy, so he remedied it with another master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard, followed by a doctorate in Medicine from the University of Hong Kong. To the snobbish Hong Kong Chinese, this sounds as perfect as marrying Jennifer Lopez, then taking Angelina Jolie as your concubine then Gong Li as a mistress.
And if a Beijing official says Hello to Dr. Kitty Poon Kit, another undersecretary, this one connected to the environment, and demand her to produce her educational certificates for examination, he would also be dazzled by her mini-gallery of brand-name academic products on the scale of Prada, Gucci and Chanel. Although born in the humble town of Ningbo, China, Dr. Poon earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Rutgers University in the crime-riddled state of New Jersey, United States, before mobilizing across the Hudson River, rightly, to Columbia University in New York, where she gained a master’s degree in International Relations. Then she was awarded a PhD in Government and Politics by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin. This is like struggling out of your Yuen Long hometown to rent an apartment in Wan Chai before ascending to a serviced apartment at the Dynasty Club next to the Grand Hyatt Hotel, and finally moving to live as a CEO in Jianguomenwai in Beijing. Hongkongers love to chart such highflying success stories.
To add to the galaxy of international academic excellence, there are other big names on the undersecretary roster, such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Princeton. The undersecretaries have not come such a long way to be labeled as high-paid dunces. Sir Donald, himself a Harvard graduate, must have some explaining to do. Perhaps he should cite George W. Bush, allegedly the worst US president since Hoover, who is also a Harvard graduate.
In the midst of a public outcry over their alleged, persistent incompetence, the 19 “undersecretaries” and “political assistants” appointed two years ago by the government have been punished with a salary freeze. Despite this, each one of them still earns a higher salary than the US Secretary of State. A monthly income of HK$220,000 (US$28,000) for an “undersecretary,” or to put it bluntly, for what has been called a batch of “novice politicians” and “lightweight Beijing-friendly political lackeys,” could certainly make someone like Hillary Clinton feel as if she’s working for a third world government.
Lined up in front of media cameras two years ago, their academic qualifications were grandly rolled out in exacting detail. For example, Dr. Gabriel Matthew Leung (an impressive Romanized name), Undersecretary of Food and Health, was reported to be holding a master’s degree from the University of Western Ontario. If you are not sure where that is, just call any Hong Kong Canadian immigrant to be informed that it is a decent yellow-bricked university in the town of London (not to be mistaken for the capital of Britain), about 100 miles outside Toronto. Dr. Leung might have been aware of this apparent geographic inadequacy, so he remedied it with another master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard, followed by a doctorate in Medicine from the University of Hong Kong. To the snobbish Hong Kong Chinese, this sounds as perfect as marrying Jennifer Lopez, then taking Angelina Jolie as your concubine then Gong Li as a mistress.
And if a Beijing official says Hello to Dr. Kitty Poon Kit, another undersecretary, this one connected to the environment, and demand her to produce her educational certificates for examination, he would also be dazzled by her mini-gallery of brand-name academic products on the scale of Prada, Gucci and Chanel. Although born in the humble town of Ningbo, China, Dr. Poon earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Rutgers University in the crime-riddled state of New Jersey, United States, before mobilizing across the Hudson River, rightly, to Columbia University in New York, where she gained a master’s degree in International Relations. Then she was awarded a PhD in Government and Politics by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin. This is like struggling out of your Yuen Long hometown to rent an apartment in Wan Chai before ascending to a serviced apartment at the Dynasty Club next to the Grand Hyatt Hotel, and finally moving to live as a CEO in Jianguomenwai in Beijing. Hongkongers love to chart such highflying success stories.
To add to the galaxy of international academic excellence, there are other big names on the undersecretary roster, such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Princeton. The undersecretaries have not come such a long way to be labeled as high-paid dunces. Sir Donald, himself a Harvard graduate, must have some explaining to do. Perhaps he should cite George W. Bush, allegedly the worst US president since Hoover, who is also a Harvard graduate.
Labels: Politically Incorrect, 陶傑
posted by Gemini Saga at 12:00 AM
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