Change of approach is needed on RTHK
Hong Kong shares the growing global obsession with credentials. But there is a need for some reflection, in the wake of the row caused by the government's decision to lower the educational requirements for applicants vying to become head of RTHK, the government broadcaster.
Originally, only degree holders were invited to apply. Having rejected 20 such candidates, applications from non-degree holders with 15 years' relevant experience will also be considered.
Critics have raised concerns that the government has done this to clear the way for a preferred candidate who does not have a degree. If that was indeed the government's motive, it should rightly be condemned. But the suggestion that the head of RTHK must have a degree is ludicrous. The chiefs of many leading media organisations around the world don't have a degree - and that has not affected the quality or standing of their products.
We should remember that as a result of the relatively recent development of universal education in our city, there remains a rich reservoir of human resources that owes less to credentials and more to ability, application, hard work - and experience. It is only 30 years since junior secondary education was made compulsory. Until the early 1980s, less than 2 per cent of 17 to 20-year-olds were able to study for locally recognised degrees. Graduates, therefore, do not yet account for a dominant proportion of those in the senior ranks of our business, government and community leaders.
Finding a candidate who is willing to accept all the constraints - political and budgetary - of working in a government-funded broadcaster is always going to be difficult. Doing that now, when RTHK faces an uncertain future as a public broadcaster, is virtually impossible, as few qualified candidates are willing to come forward.
Rather than continuing with a possibly fruitless search, the government should put a stop to the exercise. Instead, it should muster the determination to map out its vision for the public broadcasting scene and RTHK's role. Until then, it would be foolhardy to expect 'Mr Right' to emerge to lead what has fast become a lame-duck institution.
