Let Professional Courage heal the “Policy-making Paralysis Syndrome”

Letters to Engineers : 6 of 12

 

22 June 2008

   

Dear Fellow Engineers,

   

I attended a briefing on the latest report of air pollution in the Pearl River Delta region last week.  A professor from the Faculty of Medicine of the Hong Kong University lamented, “Although this research clearly shows that there are at least 10,000  premature deaths from air pollution in the Pearl River Delta which covers Hong Kong and Macau , I do not anticipate the SAR Government to make any policy improvements in this area. Just like bird flu, which has already broken out for five times and caused huge damages, the government still hesitates on the central slaughtering system.”

 

So, what exactly is Hong Kong suffering from?

 

In any civilised society, the loss of human life and the spread of health risks are the most crucial factors that will motivate a government to act boldly and resolutely to forge policy changes.   The first widespread outbreak of the avian flu was already eleven years back. However, it was not until recently that the highest echelons of the Government began to show a greater sense of determination to do something.

 

So, what exactly are our policymakers suffering from?

 

The SAR Government has all the way been suffering from a ‘Policy-making Paralysis Syndrome’ (‘PPS’). Because of such a syndrome, all citizens of Hong Kong are victimised. Hong Kong engineers, in particular, have seen the drifting away of myriads of opportunities that could have bettered our city’s development in numerous aspects. Examples are so obvious to pick:

 

• To make fundamental improvements on Hong Kong ’s air quality, the Council for Sustainable Development recommended a comprehensive package two years ago, consisting of nearly 40 action items worth more than $50 billion of investments. Most of these proposed actions, however, have not even been discussed;


• The Central Slaughtering House has been earmarked as a project worthy of $220 million. Eleven years have passed since the first outbreak of the bird flu but there is still no decision to go ahead;


• For power plants to reduce emissions, clean energy is required. Yet the government remains undecided about the options for a $10 billion natural gas receiving terminal, not to mention the launch of any research studies on how to popularise the use of natural gas in our city. On the contrary, the public transport authorities in Beijing have already invested RMB 4 billion to upgrade their fleet and infrastructure.  Five thousand new coaches running on natural gas are expected to be seen on the roads of Beijing this year;


• In 2003, I was entrusted by the Council for Sustainable Development to convene a specialists support group with a view to promoting public participation and recommending sustainable strategies in solid waste management. The construction of bulk treatment facilities such as incinerators is part and parcel of the recommended strategy.  Unfortunately the Government is yet to decide on whether the investment of $4 billion in incinerator will go ahead;


• Although as early as 2000, the International Expert Panel appointed by the Government recommended that biological treatment (Stage 2B) of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme is both necessary and desirable, the top officials still refuse to set a definite timetable for this $10.8 billion project;


• To relieve traffic congestions on the northern part of the Hong Kong Island , the electronic road pricing system has been put to earnest investigation time and again in the past twenty years.  Even the Transport Expert Panel appointed by the Harbourfront Enhancement Committee agreed that the Central-Wanchai Bypass could not be a replacement of the electronic road pricing system.  Nonetheless, the Government has still not made up its mind.

 

The endless delay of these projects alone has already led to the loss of engineering contracts worth over $70 billion.  If creativity were ever applied to policymaking, these projects could have earned loud public applauses for the Government, and demonstrated to Hongkongers that the Government really cares what they care.  Instead, the indecision and delay on the part of the Government have continued to heighten the immeasurable risks in environmental quality and public health.  Therefore, if Hong Kong ’s engineers do not stand together to help heal this PPS at the Government’s top level, the loss to the profession is both gigantic and endless.  Not only every engineer becomes a victim; everybody in Hong Kong becomes a victim.

 

It is the self-preservation mentality of the Government’s top policymakers that has led to all these.  The present situation is also caused by these officials’ lack of international perspective, their inability to grasp key technical know-how, their kow-towing to vested interests, or their failure to keep pace with changing public aspirations. If  engineers can articulate their views using good science, and voice them out with professional integrity and independence, they will gain significant moral strength to become  true ‘enablers’ of public opinion - providing smart solutions and becoming true partners of the Government by enhancing the latter’s resolve in policy-making.

 

Some may say in private that “engineers should better mind their own jobs and keep their mouths shut.”  But I think all of us can understand that any engineer who truly cares for his or her own job will not step back in the face of vested interest and let the profession’s new development opportunities be trampled under its feet.  Speaking the truth in front of the power and the rich is the best way to reinstate the professional pride of all engineers to where it should be.  It is in the best interest of all engineers and Hongkongers to walk tall and thereby revive all those frozen but badly needed engineering projects.

 

 

Yours truly,

 

 

Ir Albert Lai

 

 

Asahi Environment Centre, Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

(Photo Courtesy of Peter Li)

 

Incinerator in Beitou District, Taipei

(Photo Courtesy of Peter Li)

 

Gas Mask and Engineers as Enablers

Letter 5/ 12

                                                                                                                          5 June 2008

Dear Fellow Engineers,

Gas Mask and Engineers as Enablers

As you may know, today---- June 5 --- is the World Environment Day.  Thirty years ago on this very day, when I just completed my first year of studies in engineering at the University of Hong Kong, I went along with several fellow members of the Conservancy Association to the Tsimshatsui Ferry.  We stood right in front of the famous Ferry flagstaff; each of us took out a gas mask from our backpack and started to put the mask on our face. Our intention was to demonstrate to the public that air pollution was a health hazard that must be addressed. Nevertheless, even before we could take out our cameras, a police sergeant was heading straight towards us.  At a faraway corner, an expatriate police superintendent was watching us with a fierce look.

Ten minutes later, I found myself inside the Police Station at the nearby Tsimshatsui Hill for interrogation.  The “funny” thing, however, was that even the police inspector on duty that day could not understand why wearing a gas mask could justify a police interrogation.  Anyway, this was my very first time to set foot in a police station.

From then on, however, I reaffirm my belief in the role of engineers in face of challenges, which is to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Another remarkable incident I have experienced is that of the Long Valley saga six years ago.   If you take a ride on the Lok Ma Chau Line of the East Rail towards Shenzhen, you can be forgiven for missing the fact that you are actually cutting across the largest freshwater wetland in Hong Kong.  This wetland is home to more than 200 species of birds.   A handful of decision-makers in the then KCRC top management insisted that the new railway should be built above the Wetland, creating a seemingly unavoidable clash between ‘conservation’ and ‘development’.  The deadlock seemed unbreakable and a legal battle broke out between the KCRC and the Director of Environmental Protection.

At last, engineers came to the rescue.  The design of the railway line was revamped.  A 3.2 km tunnel design was adopted instead and a freezing-ground method was employed for tunnel excavation to guard against the loss of groundwater table.  The result was a double-win for both conservation and development: Hong Kong got an international applause in wetland conservation; the cross-border traffic jam was eased. Though the total project cost rose from $8 billion to $10 billion, it was generally considered good value for money by the community. The engineering industry got the direct benefits.

Engineers are enablers of solutions that transcend conflicts, hence demonstrating the power of engineering.

Another recent case was the development of the Centennial Campus by the University of Hong Kong two years ago.  The site was located on a narrow and steep slope, covering three waterworks buildings, which were classified as heritage.  A veteran architect overseeing the project told me, “This is the toughest project I have ever come across.  We must not reduce the gross floor areas; we must not increase the building heights for fear of blocking the views of local residents; and we must not interrupt water supply from the   service reservoirs.  How can we go ahead without sacrificing one or two heritage buildings?”

After several rounds of meetings, I, together with another engineer insisted on an on-site visit with the university management, project architects and engineers from the Water Supplies Department, with a view to finding solutions that can harmonise development with conservation.

Again, engineers came to the rescue.  The service reservoir was relocated to a man-made tunnel. The Water Supplies Department adjusted certain technical specifications and the layout of the buildings was revamped.  At the end, all three historic buildings are to be conserved. Amongst them, the Elliot Treatment Works Building will likely become the first industrial monument open to the public in Hong Kong.

Once again, this is the power of engineering.

Some people like to spread these words, “Conservation destroys engineering; and it stops the world from spinning.”   It is hard to believe that any engineer living in the 21^st century would not treat this as a joke.  Those who spread this kind of views would only show their ignorance about the power of engineering.

Next time when you hear words like these, you may invite the person to read carefully the speech of our Chief Executive Donald Tsang delivered at the Boao Asian Forum earlier this year, “The green agenda is no longer something that is imported or foisted upon Asian countries or cities. It is an essential element in the ongoing success of cities such as Hong Kong…….”*

The gas mask thirty years ago has always acted as a timely reminder: engineers can excel as enablers: rise above conflicts, forge consensus and create new opportunities.  This is what the engineering profession is good at, and what engineers can be proud of.**

Yours truly,

Ir Albert Lai

* The speech: www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200804/12/P200804120137.htm

** Engineers Without Borders (HK) News: http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/albertlai-hk/

Long Valley wetland preserved by engineers: more idle fields changed to wetland and organic farming was introduced.

Engineers as Enablers: after the conflict was resolved, local villagers were trained as eco-tour guides so that more income could flow to the indigenous people.

The Wrinkles of Chief Engineer Li and Engineers Without Borders

Letters to Engineers (4/12)

20 May 2008

 

Dear Fellow Engineers:

When I first met Mr Li twelve years ago, he had just retired from being the chief engineer of the Shenyang Municipal Government Water Supplies Corporation.  Our foreign invested water purification plant engaged Ir Li as the company’s general manager.  Strong-built and dark-skinned, Ir Li was a typical North-easterner of Muslim background.  Although he never said much when he was not drinking, he was always the first one to arrive at the scene whenever there was a problem at the work place.  It seems to me that harshness was nothing to him and he was always full of energy.  The many wrinkles on his face, set against his bright and clear eyes, testified to the countless tough jobs he had gone through as an engineer.

Many years later, a Jesuit priest requested my help to solve the drinking water shortage problem in a rural school funded by Hong Kong donors in Kaiping City of the Guangdong Province .  At that time, Ir Li had already retired for the second time.  Nevertheless, when he knew about this, he immediately went all the way from Shenyang to Kaiping with two other engineers.  Under his supervision, a team of site workers was gathered together to dig several testing wells in the surrounding areas of the rural school.  When the source of underground water was affirmed, the team immediately began to lay water pipes. Shortly after two weeks, clean and reliable drinking water was flowing in the school complex. The dirty old well, which hundreds of teachers and students used to rely on for cooking and drinking, became a thing of the past.

I can still remember the smiling faces of those lovely rural schoolchildren when they first saw the new well in their school. Alas! They painfully reminded me of those poor schoolchildren who were buried alive during the terrible earthquake a week ago in Sichuan . More than 9,000 schools were reduced to rubble just in seconds. According to the Standard for Classification of Seismic Protection of Buildings issued by China ’s Ministry of Construction, buildings in the region stretching from Chengdu to Beichuan must be built to withstand Shaking Level 7 during earthquakes.  The latest standard promulgated in 2004 specifies that among all education institutions, only large kindergartens and primary schools, classified as Type B buildings, are required to reach Shaking Level 8.  Most of the school buildings are only classified as Type C.  Is this something worthy of an immediate review by the authorities now?  As the shaking level at the epicentre had already exceeded the level of endurance required by those building standards, the recent earthquake has cost immense casualty in the rural and remote areas.  These casualties remind us of one grim fact: every design and every single signature by an engineer is a pledge of life and death to all those we serve.

To those children who have survived the earthquake, the society owes them a better future.  One of the most important ways to help them restart life is to put them back to school as soon as possible.  A normal school life is probably the best way to heal the broken hearts of these children.  Nevertheless, there is one fundamental rule we must adhere to in building those new schools after the disaster ---- there must be a new standard of seismic protection for these buildings, especially those in the more backward and impoverished areas.

In an earnest bid to help, many motivated engineers and other related professionals have joined hands to set up a new humanitarian service in Hong Kong --- Engineers Without Borders (EWB).   Through cooperation with relief agencies such as Sowers Action, engineers and other professionals grouped under the EWB can volunteer their much needed advice and services in the rebuilding of rural schools in Sichuan , or support the meaningful work of other humanitarian agencies.

Judging from the enthusiastic response of the past week, I am sure that a new leaf has opened for Hong Kong engineers whereby they can utilise their professional knowledge and skills to promote and develop humanitarian services.  After its initial meeting, the Organising Committee of EWB has decided to explore its role and mission in four aspects: (1) the establishment of  a Register of Humanitarian Engineers and Professionals; (2) the provision of  engineering and technical support to humanitarian agencies for their relief and reconstruction work; (3) the support  to impoverished communities in their fight against poverty; (4) capacity building for engineers in  humanitarian work.

However futile human endeavours may have seemed in the face of great natural disasters, life must go on.  I was gratified to see that some forty engineers and architects, many of whom I have never met before, attended the first preparatory meeting of the EWB last Sunday. It was humility that has brought us together, and I hope that it would take us one step further to alleviate our compatriots from their sufferings and losses.

I still remember when I first visited the home of Chief Engineer Li, he showed me a picture he took with the late Chairman Mao in the 1950s.  That was a very precious photo to him because it was taken when he received the then very prestigious “ National Labour Model Award ”.  “You see, all mayors of Shenyang have been very nice to me since,”  he told me. Very sadly, Chief Engineer Li passed away two years ago, or else, he could well have been the first to ring me up and join the EWB.   To me, Chief Engineer Li’s heavily wrinkled face is always a testimony to the unswerving dedication of engineers to serve humanity.

Yours sincerely,

Albert Lai

 

Ir Albert Lai, Ir Li from Shenyang (the fourth one from the right with a hat) and other colleagues

 

                                                                       

The Central Kowloon Route and Community Aspirations

Albert Lai’s Series of Letters to Engineers (3/12) 

5 May 2008 

Dear Fellow Engineers, 

I attended a public forum on the Central Kowloon Route Project on 15 March this year. Towards the end of the forum, a middle-aged man sitting next to me whispered, “We residents of the Prosperous Garden have clamoured for road noise barriers for many, many years, talking to numerous government departments.  Those engineers chairing the forum this time look really earnest to me. I hope they won’t let us down again.” 

It was almost a year ago since I started to get involved in the Central Kowloon Route Project.  At that time, the project was facing an imminent deadlock because the proposal included a plan to demolish part of the Yaumatai Police Station heritage complex, which aroused major concern among the public and many LegCo members. 

Trying to find ways to break the deadlock, the responsible government departments reached out for the views of key stakeholders.  I had lengthy discussions with the responsible engineers on two occasions, during which I offered three suggestions:  

(1) To re-launch the project, a public engagement process should be conducted as soon as possible, involving especially the local residents and the disadvantaged groups of Yaumatai so that they can participate in the planning process and voice their views; 

(2) To build mutual trust, it would be advisable for an independent body to host those public engagement activities instead of following the traditional mode of public consultation; 

(3) To nurture consensus, the project should be visualised not merely as a road-building project, but also a community improvement project. Stakeholders can be encouraged to look into new development possibilities, which might have been overlooked in the past. 

In the ensuing six months, government engineers, consultants and the mediating body worked hard as a team. They organised three public forums and charettes, arranged public visits to the Yaumatai Police Station and held an inter-school planning competition. From being rather cynical at the beginning, local residents, shop owners of Temple Street and the Jade Market, as well as conservation groups became more and more involved in searching for mutually acceptable solutions to the problems. 

The concept of public participation in environmental policy-making has its roots in the Rio Declaration, a definitive document signed by many countries of the world including China, at the Earth Summit in 1992.  By now, the concept has become an international consensus and one of the key principles in sustainable development.  I can still remember, when leading a Hong Kong NGO delegation to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa in 2002, the Chinese official exhibition was largely focused on how public participation could make development more balanced and more suited to local needs. 

The success story of the Central Kowloon Route project is another breakthrough after the collaboration over the last five years between many professionals and the government in experimenting new public engagement mechanisms via the Council for Sustainable Development and the Harbour-front Enhancement Committee.  To ensure that more projects beneficial to the public can be launched smoothly and quickly, we must sum up the valuable experiences we had in these public engagement exercises in order to establish a new policy framework. Should engineers not use this as an excellent opportunity to take the lead in policy-making and in fostering new development possibilities? 

After the public forum, I chanced to leave the venue side by side with an elderly woman of some seventy years old. This old lady told me that she lived alone in an old building in Shanghai Street. As a diabetic, she had to go to the Yaumatai Jockey Club Clinic every month to replenish her drug.  She was very worried that if the Clinic were to be moved to the new harbour front of West Kowloon, her monthly trip to the Clinic would be that much harder, “How can I walk up and down and cross so many flyovers? What if I trip and fall down the stairs on my way? I might be dead without anybody knowing it.” She said she had waited for the whole afternoon just to utter these words to express her concern. 

I could only comfort her by assuring her that new engineering projects are there to better, not worsen, the livelihood of elderly residents like her.  The old lady did not say a word but I could still remember how she limped her way down the stairs.  
 

Yours sincerely 

Ir Albert Lai 
 

N.B.

The Highways Department announced last week that under the Preferred Option for the Central Kowloon Route Project, the entire complex of the Yaumatai Police Station would be conserved, the Jade Market would be relocated in the neighbourhood during and after construction, the Jockey Club Clinic would stay where it is, and the Temple Street Night Market would be able to conduct business as usual. The underground space excavated for the tunnel will be used for the re-provisioning of community facilities. The Project would commence construction in 2012 and be completed in 2016, at an estimated cost of HK$10 billion.

 

Central Kowloon Route Public Forum

World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002

Outsiders Leading Insiders --- to whose benefit?

Albert Lai’s series of Letters to Engineers ( 2/12) 

28 April 2008 

Dear Engineer Friends, 

Last week, I attended a LegCo’s Bills Committee on the amendment of the Air Pollution Control Bill. The meeting was focused on the setting of emission caps and the distribution of emission allowances. That should have been a perfect opportunity for the engineering profession to demonstrate how we can contribute to public welfare by devising the best scheme to protect public health. Unfortunately, the official leading the government delegation, not himself a professional engineer, seemed over-stretched when trying to answer the many queries from Legislative Councillors and concern groups. Ironically, the professional engineer who had all the details at heart was kept sitting alongside with his mouth shut. 

This reminds me of what happened at a prize presentation ceremony held at the end of last year. At the end of the ceremony, a senior engineer pulled me behind a column in the hotel lobby. He passionately told me how professional views could not reach the top, and how upset he was when he found himself disallowed to reveal the truth to the public when professional judgments had been sacrificed in deference to politically expedient decisions. He also explained how budgets for professional training had been trimmed repeatedly, leaving his staff in low morale, about which he felt so helpless. I can still recall the intense frustration he showed on his face - a scene deeply troubling to me up to this day. 

In fact, this engineer was concerned not only about the plight of his colleagues; he was concerned about the fate of the engineering profession, which is really a matter affecting Hong Kong’s overall interest. 

In the past few years, many engineers could not help but wonder how many project decisions have been made top-down in violation of professional judgements. For instance, one might ask why should the government delay HATS Stage 2B given the public desire to quickly improve the water quality of the Victoria Harbour? Why should the government delay waste recycling schemes and refuse to adopt community compensation schemes, thereby making it harder for the public to accept the early construction of the solid waste incinerator? And why should the 3,000 km of water mains under the replacement and rehabilitation scheme be required to finish with great haste, despite unbearable stress on traffic loads and manpower resource? 

The adverse effects of outsiders leading insiders are not only obvious amongst government engineers; they are causing untold sufferings to engineers in the private sector too. It is well known that the current tendering system has led to cutthroat competition among engineering contractors and consultants. This distorted system, dictated largely by outsiders such as finance bureaucrats, has never taken into account the social objectives of nurturing engineering talents, improving working conditions or encouraging diverse employment opportunities. Public interest will in turn be jeopardized when the level of creativity, talent and quality begins to decline in the engineering sector.  

With our professional training and international outlook, we engineers are in the best position to take up a ‘decoder’ role for the general public.  We are capable of highlighting the constraints and opportunities available under different modes of development, thus enabling the community to make informed choices for the future of our city. To fulfil this very role of engineers, there is only one path to take: to enhance our professional independence, to enlarge our sphere of decision-making, and to have the courage to speak up for ourselves and for public interest.  

It is only when the public starts to applaud for the courage and the merits of the engineering profession, then institutional and sectoral reforms will become a natural consequence. The prime challenge is this: how can we stand tall with our professional integrity, and how can we make our voice loud and clear. 
 

Yours sincerely, 

Ir Albert K T Lai 

兩個工程師的真情對話 A Passionate Dialogue Between Two Engineers

1.    An Engineer's letter to Albert Lai一封給黎廣德的信

Dear Mr. Lai,

I wish to write to you yesterday after receiving your mail because I share so much of your feeling.  I intended to do this in Chinese, but it took me a long time to type out a few lines last night, and I gave up.  Today, at the front page of many newspapers, there is  the Secretary's photo announcing the construction of the high speed rail link to China.  I felt so dejected in seeing that.  Where are we engineers?

I  shared your pride of being a professional  civil engineer when I got  the MICE after years of hard work .  I saw my title  at the level of doctors and lawyers, and certainly much higher than being a teacher or bank manager.  I am proud of being a professional who could make independent judgment on issues and defend our professionalism.  However, as we see, as years gone by, we are far lag behind, being overtaken by many other professions.   In the eyes of the public, we speak for the prestige class, but not the general public.  Now, I even feel ashamed of being an engineer and I would not tell people that I am an engineer.  What had gone wrong?  I try to bring this down into 3 areas to facilitate discussion:

We engineers in society - we are now being labelled by the public as a group of "conservatives" who worked for the wealth and justify their being continuing with creating more wealth.  We are far behind in having our voice heard in the public media standing up to speak for the people.  We are selfish.

Engineers in the government organisation - Since the disbandment of PWD, we are not a powerful group in the government structure anymore.  Followed by weak engineers  leader who would never stand up to say  NO to the AO,  we have become  "slaves" (I hate to use this word) to them.  We are trailed to a  second or even third class professional, surpassed by many other grades in government.  We are in the present situation because  some of our  engineers are selfish.   They are willing to sacrifice our professionalism for the sake of their own promotion opportunities.  The AOs are very happy to see us having a weak engineer head.  See the police; can the AO  put their hands into it?

The standard of engineers - I could see our standard dropping over the decades.  The professional exam cannot upkeep our standard, particularly during the years when we had an acute shortage of engineers in the late '80s and early 90s.

I am very happy to see someone like you standing up to try to do something to help  our profession.  Though I am not too optimistic, it is better than doing nothing.  I write here to give you encouragement to continue with the good work you have done so far.

 23-4-2008

 

2. Reply from Albert Lai 黎廣德的回函

Thank you for writing this heart-felt letter, for which I am truly grateful.

I can sense your pride, your passion and your frustration throughout the long years of striving to be a conscientious engineer dedicated to the public good. These are the core values we Hongkongers, not only engineers, should learn to uphold.

Yes, we have gone through a long decline in many aspects but all is not lost:  we have not lost our passion for change. You and your words are themselves testimony to the free human spirit. In our hearts we know what is wrong, and what needs to be put right.

Sometimes the external obstacles may be too big for individual effort to make a dent of it. Yet these times will not last. When more and more people are aware of where we are and why we are here, the passion for change will grow, and the obstacles will no longer be immovable.

I have kept this faith for the last three decades, and I have witnessed changes against all odds.

But I will not be able to do it alone. I need people like you to make change possible. You can help now by spreading the words, sending the message to your friends and colleagues, reminding them to register as voters before May 16, and inviting them to connect with me so that our network for like-minded engineers may grow

Albert
24-4-2008

Eleven Years of Stifling Air, Enough is Enough!

[ Ir Albert Lai 's Series of Letters to Engineers (1/12)]

 

Dear Engineer Friends,

 

Just a few months ago, an engineer graduated in the year 1997 told me his story.  One late night while he was boarding the train for his home in the NT after a long day's work, his mobile phone rang. It was his mom, asking, not without some displeasure, why he had not come over for dinner in the past month. Totally exhausted from work, he did not bother to say much and quickly hang up.  On that very night, he couldn't fall asleep because this very question kept haunting him --- why he still couldn't afford to live in a small apartment in the metro area after working for eleven years, so that he and his wife could visit their parents more often?

So how did we engineers actually fare in the last eleven years? Long working hours; insecure job prospects; poorer remuneration than many professions; cut-throat competition in tendering; all talks of reforms still hanging in the air; the idea of professionalism is being challenged as top-down decisions are made by non-professionals. After eleven years of stifling air, we now seem to face a deadlock for the engineering profession.  Some young engineers got so frustrated that they simply left the profession for careers in insurance or finance. The risk of a talent gap in the profession is emerging.

 

Why would we engineers come to this? Is this really the fate of being an engineer in Hong Kong ?

Of course, it is no surprise that every profession experiences its ups and downs as time changes.  Yet the last decade should have been the golden years for engineers, as globalisation has favoured a knowledge-based economy; Hong Kong people are aspiring for a better environment through new developments; and the integration with  Mainland China is spurring more demands for infrastructural projects.  Yet, despite all these favourable factors, we engineers are facing the worst instead of getting the best.

 

Last week, I happened to meet again at an HKIE function the same engineer who couldn't find time to visit his parents.  I offered some solutions on how to remove the obstacles facing the development of the Central-Wanchai Bypass. As that engineer happens to be one of the members of this project team, we started to chat very enthusiastically.   From his eyes, I can see that he still had much passion for the profession – the kind of passion typical to every engineer in the seminar room.

 

I believe that all engineers, when they chose to study engineering, were full of enthusiasm for the profession itself and were pleased to make it their life long career and their personal mission, just like what I did myself some thirty years ago at the university.  They chose to become an engineer not just for the remuneration, but rather the pride of dedicating themselves to a respectable profession.

 

I believe the real cause of the eleven-year deadlocks lie not in the so-called "bad times", "bad luck" or "bad try".  Should we not trace the root of all these to a matter of personality, a question of governance, or the persistence of an outdated mode of thinking?

 

We must go on, and the way forward should be made broader and brighter. The current  President of the Institute of Civil Engineers , Ir David Orr, spoke at the inauguration ceremony about his vision for engineers as "people acclaimed for merit, in the heart of society."

Here in Hong Kong , we engineers should no doubt have the courage to achieve more.

 

Ir Albert K T Lai

 

 

Graduation photo with my wife -- aspirations for the future

 

 

A career in the engineering profession

 

 

Assistant Resident Engineer at the Shatin Sewage Treatment Works