Public Eye: Tourism bureaucrats obliterate history
15 July 2009
South China Morning Post

If you have the time, stand at the Kowloon Star Ferry bus terminus and ask yourself this: what pressing need made our overpaid officials decide to obliterate this piece of Hong Kong's history anyway? At least with the Hong Kong Star Ferry pier there was the excuse of a new road. But what town-planning objective did our bureaucrats have in mind when they ruled we must replace real history with a fake piazza?

Did they simply scratch their heads and wonder: Now, what can we do with the Tsim Sha Tsui bus terminus? Is that why they then spent big bucks of your money to consult the public? The tourism trade wants a piazza, our bureaucrats discovered. Public Eye could have told them that without having to consult anybody. Surely they know how the tourism folks love to fill places with fume-belching coaches while visitors hurriedly snap pictures of themselves with the obligatory victory hand signs. Here's a question: what tourism industry in the world aside from ours would advocate ripping out history? But our tourism bureaucrats are ecstatic. They say the people want the piazza.

What people? When they consulted the public, did they ask this: Would you mind awfully if there was no piazza? Why did they ask the people in the first place? Did the people ask to be asked?

By Michael Chugani

(上次更新: 2009-07-16)