New commission on poverty 重設扶貧委員會面對深層次矛盾

MOST employees return to work today - thefourth day of the new lunar year. It hasbeen the case with many in the lower income bracketthat having a job does not mean having much hope ofemerging from poverty. According to the Census andStatistics Department, over the past decade, thepercentage of people who have tertiary qualificationsand are in the lower income bracket has gone upsharply. In Hong Kong, not only is the rich rich--poor gapwide, but some people having good academicqualifications have "fallen low". Even Chief ExecutiveDonald Tsang has acknowledged that the governmentneeds to think hard to come up with measures toalleviate poverty because surveys show more peoplehave now become poor.

In this city there are many residentialdevelopments whose flats fetch sky sky--high prices.However, many who live in a street near such adevelopment may be in an abyss of misery. Try asthey may to climb up the social ladder, opportunitiesare denied them. We must not allow what is depictedin HHiigghh aanndd LLooww, an Akira Kurosawa , classic classic, to happen, here year after year.

High High--ranking officials believe economic growthbenefits even those in the lowest stratum of society inwhat some call the "drip effect". However, it is quiteclear from figures of the Census and StatisticsDepartment that this has not been the case. In the pastdecade, Hong Kong's GDP grew 43.5%, but people inthe lower income bracket have not become better off.They are in fact in serious danger of becoming worseoff.

Top HKSAR officials tend to try to alleviate povertyby giving handouts. We are convinced that handoutsare just painkillers, which would never undo any of theconsequences of the government's many misguidedpolicies that have conspired to bring about poverty. Forexample, people would ask why is it that 86,000people who have post post--secondary qualifications haveeach earned just between $5,000 and $6,000 amonth? Is there anything wrong with education in HongKong? Has Hong Kong lost many unskilled jobs toother places? Are there more and more unskilledworkers in the SAR? Has that anything to do with thefact that the quality of mainlanders who settle in HongKong under the One Way Permit scheme is beyondthe SAR government's control?

The government has spent much public money onretraining programmes. However, Hong Kong workers'incomes have kept shrinking. Is that because thoseretraining programmes are out of step with HongKong's economic restructuring? Are there other factorsin this phenomenon? Hong Kong people advocatecompetition. However, there are more and more areasin which a few big businesses have almost becomemonopolies monopolies, and the government is , tardy in introducinga competition law. People are therefore worried thatmore and more conventional traders may be squeezedout and, as a result, more and more people may "falllow".

The government should keep monitoring howpoverty relates to the social policies mentioned aboveso that it can accordingly take effective measures toprevent poverty from quickly becoming prevalent. Wetherefore propose that the government again set up aninterdepartmental commission on poverty as soon aspossible. The commission should look at thedeep deep--rooted social contradictions that have led topoverty, thereby finding a comprehensive plan to curethe problem. The government must not just givehandouts at the expense of the taxpayer. Unless wetackle in earnest social factors in prevalent poverty,social contradictions will only intensify. When socialcontradictions cause a general eruption, society willhave to pay an even higher price.

重設扶貧委員會面對深層次矛盾

明報社評2010.02.17

大年初四，是大部分打工仔女開工的第一天。對於不少低下階層來說，近年有工開也不代表脫貧在望。統計處數據顯示，具大專學歷的低收入人士比例在10 年間大增，香港不單貧富懸殊問題嚴重，更出現高學歷人士「向下流」情況。最近，特首曾蔭權也承認「調查顯示香港的貧窮人口增加」，須認真考慮緩解措施。

在這裏天價豪宅處處之地，一街之隔往往就有一大批活在水深火熱之中的人，力求向上爬但苦無機會。我們不應讓香港年復一年上演日本導演黑澤明的著名電影──《天國與地獄》的現實版。

以往政府高層一直認為只要經濟有增長，社會的最低下層也有望可以憑藉「滴漏效應」而受惠。不過，政府統計處的上述數據清楚顯示，現實情況並非如此。本地生產總值的數字十年裏雖然上升了43.5 43.5％，但社會低下％，層的生活不但未能受惠，而且有不斷「往下跌」的危機。

面對本港的貧窮問題，特區政府高層多愛「派糖」來作回應。我們深信「派糖」只能收「止痛」之效，而不能解決貧窮問題隱含著的多項政策失誤。例如大家會問：為何8.6 萬名具備專上學歷程度的人士，月入會低至五六千元？是我們的教育內容出現了問題，還是香港低技術工種正加速外流，又或是我們的低技術工人愈來愈多？這與讓內地新移民來港的單程證計劃未能控制移民質素又是否有關？

此外，政府近年投入了大量公帑進行各式各樣的再培訓計劃，但同一時間香港工人的收入卻愈來愈低。這是否代表了我們的再培訓計劃未能配合香港經濟的轉型，還是另有原因？香港社會崇尚競爭，但愈來愈多行業出現個別企業大面積壟斷市場的情況，而政府的競爭法又遲遲未能出台，令人擔心會有愈來愈多傳統小商舖被淘汰，進而令更多人「往下來」。

上述一系列社會政策與貧窮問題的關係十分值得政府長期跟進，以便因應問題的變化，採取相應措施，令香港的貧窮問題不至於迅速惡化。因此，我們建議政府盡快重組一個跨部門的扶貧委員會，深入研究香港貧窮問題所揭示的社會深層次矛盾，然後找出一套綜合治理方案，而不是只懂慷納稅人之慨，繼續派派糖敷衍了事。事實上，我們若然不切實面對造成社會出現大面積貧困人口的社會因素，社會矛盾只會愈積愈大。當矛盾出現總爆發時，社會要付出的代價恐怕會更大。

Glossary

classic

a book, movie or song that is well known andconsidered to be of very high quality.

monopoly

a company that possesses a monopoly.

tardy /'ta:dI/ slow to act or move.