[tinybear]

Well, this must be a first for Hong Kong. ICAC Commissioner resigns after only 8 months on the job over misconduct.

What's worrying is that a senior ICAC investigator, when asked for his views on how the Commission would be affected, replied that there was no effect whatsoever because the ICAC Commissioner was 'just a figurehead'!

The ICAC is a body with wide ranging powers of investigation, exceeding those of the police and, guess what, its head doesn't have a clue about what his/her subordinates are doing. What do you think, folks? Isn't it time the ICAC itself be investigated?

[KnowItAll]

HK, given its status with China has been corrupted in one form or the other. Either by the brits or by other influences....

nothing new here....

someone has been made the scrape goat.

[discobay]

And only a day after Fanny Law's goat scraping too.

[KnowItAll]

I need to get into the goat biz. Them four legged creatures get a lot more protection than I do, as a business person.

[looking@HK]

In addiiton to other powers, ICAC regulates/oversees some of SFC's divisions right? And the senior investigator publicly stated that ICAC commissioner was simply a figurehead!!

This sort of thing happens everywhere, including here in the US. But publicly calling the commissioner a figurehead, now that poses credibility questions for the entire system.

[tinybear]

In a way, Fanny brought this upon herself. As Permanent Secretary, she was under no obligation to push any education policy or agenda. She chose to do so and in a way which exceeded the permitted boundaries.

Yeah, ICAC is out of control. We gave it too much power and you know what they say about power: it corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[dwoo]

As a public school English teacher in Hong Kong, taking into account my own personal dealings with the Education and Manpower Bureau, I didn't find the details of its top leaders' belligerent and uncompromising behavior surprising, since I have observed this ridiculous behavior in its middle managers and frontline staff alike; though, there are, I hope, just as many EMB officers who will provide education stakeholders with specific care and attention as those who will only offer nebulous bureaucratic language, served hot on a freshly-baked piece of white paper!

The recent coverage in the SCMP hasn't mentioned the students of the HKIED; that is, the future teachers of Hong Kong who not only are responsible for the social and intellectual indoctrination of Hong Kong's young people, but also have to deal with the EMB on a daily basis, for as long as they remain teachers, which might be - dare I say - forever! As these teachers begin their careers in Hong Kong's public education sector, this scandal, even with its satisfactory outcome, certainly wasn't the most encouraging sign of things to come.

[tinybear]

Arthur and Fanny are quite stupid if you ask me. The policy of merger of the HKIED with CUHK is in fact not without its merits. It need not be pushed in this way. If they had gone through all the proper channels, everything would have turned out OK.

[IceAIM]

Isn't the ICAC still more or less the same agency that it was before the handover? Yeah it is true that the ICAC has a wide range of powers, but corruption levels are still just as low now as they used to be before the handover.

Fanny Law is an idiot though, I am not sure why a moron like her got transferred as the commissioner of the ICAC in the first place. She had no business being there.

[goodkarma]

Corruption may be low in obvious places like in the staff at immigration and general civil servant areas but it's rampant in a lot of industries here such as food and beverage.