From Government to Governance? Politics of Planning in the First Decade of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Abstract

This paper investigates when and why a civil society will challenge growth-biased plans, made by a top-down mode of planning within the non-democratic setting of an executive government-led and economics-first society. In the controversies surrounding the Government's plans to further the filling in of the beautiful Victoria Harbour to produce land for “development” in the first decade of the post-colonial Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), participatory and multi-stakeholder-centred planning practices emerged when many interested parties were dissatisfied with the official reclamation plan. Using the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance, an anti-reclamation civil society organization managed to take the government to court and successfully stop further harbour reclamation, forcing government officials to heed alternative views on harbourfront planning, and to pay attention to non-government professionals ready to use their skills to serve the growing civil society. However, despite this early success, the progress of the case so far suggests that participation remains tokenistic, producing minimal fundamental institutional changes. Hence, professionals within and outside the government continue to face an interrelated, two-pronged challenge: how to further empower lay citizens as they seek new ways to institutionalize a more participatory mode of planning governance.

Keywords:

• Governance
• lived experiences
• reclamation
• non-democratic setting
• civil society
• role of planners

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the four anonymous referees for their insightful, critical yet constructive comments. The author would also like to express heartfelt thanks to the superb editorial support rendered by the Journal. All the errors that remain in the article are, of course, the author's sole responsibility. The funding support of the RGC Competitive Earmarked Research Grant (HKU 7462/06J) is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

 1. According to Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.”

 2. This idea of “myths as truths and knowledge” is inspired by an argument put forward by McGuirk (2001, p. 207): “power takes effect through the ability to define what is accepted as knowledge, and is accorded the authoritative status of truth.”

 3. This phase of “re-centralization” of spatial planning and development has a lot to do with China's open door policy, de-industrialization in Hong Kong and the tertiarization of its economy and the building of the city into a financial centre for Asia and China's transitional economy.

 4. The distinction between “life space” and “economic space” has been discussed in detail by Friedmann (1988, pp. 96–97). Life space refers to the improvement of people's quality of life (reproduction) whereas economic space refers to the enhancement of economic growth (production).

 5. Listed in the website of the Society for the Protection of the Harbour: http://www.harbourprotection.org/html/all_page_a_eng.htm accessed July 2007.

 6. In 1999, the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance was amended to cover the entire harbour. The most important clauses of this short Ordinance (four sections) appear in section 3: “(1) The harbour is to be protected as a special public asset and a natural heritage of Hong Kong people, and for that purpose there shall be a presumption against reclamation in the harbour. (Amended 75 of 1999 s.4); and (2) All public officials and public bodies shall have regard to the principles stated in subsection (1) for guidance in the exercise of any powers vested in them” (Department of Justice, 1999).

 7. The terms of reference for HEC include: provide feedback to and monitor the reviews on the remaining proposed reclamation within the harbour, namely the Wan Chai North and South East Kowloon reclamation proposal; advise on the planning, design and development issues…relating to the existing and new harbourfront and the adjoining areas; advise on the means to enlist greater public involvement in the planning and design of the harbourfront areas; and explore as a sustainable framework to manage the harbourfront areas, including public?private partnership (HEC, 2004).

 8. The Director of Environmental Protection Department (EPD) used to be a professional in the environment field. However, after the then Director of EPD refused to grant an environmental permit to a railway company to run a line through a man-made wetland in 2000, the Director took early retirement and the post has since been filled by administrative officers.

 9. The Government suggests the construction of a “groundscraper”, that is, the laying flat of a skyscraper because this huge building will lie right in front of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the seaview of which is protected by its land lease.

10. The civic space embedded within the Queen's Pier, the Edinburgh Square and the City Hall echoes the ruling spaces at Government Hill and the then Governor House on the southern slope via Statue Square in Central, a powerful “political spine” comparable to “fungshui spur lines” in the New Territories. One should never “truncate” a fungshui spur line.

11. Facts observed when the author joined the workshop on 12 May 2007.

12. Non-official members of the HEC include representatives from: the Business Environment Council, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong, Citizen Envisioning@Harbour (CE@H) (a coalition of 17 organizations), the Conservancy Association (the first green group in Hong Kong), Friends of the Earth, Hong Kong Institute of Architects, Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, Hong Kong Institute of Planners, Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, Hong Kong Institute of Engineers, Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong, the Society for Protection of the Harbour Limited as well as some other professionals who join the Committee on a personal basis. The author is the representative of CE@H.