Barun Roy: Where people's will matters

ASIA FILE

Can anyone cite an example in democratic India of a major public project being undertaken after actually discussing it with the public? I can't.

When the vast wetlands east of Kolkata were filled up to reclaim land for a new township, nobody bothered about public opinion. Opponents questioning the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada were simply branded as subversives.

In our system of democracy, only two classes have room to exist "" the rulers who take decisions and the ruled who are obliged to follow them "" and never the twain shall meet.

That's why it may seem strange to readers here that the authorities in Hong Kong, where critics bewail a lack of democracy, have decided to hold a public consultation on what to do with the site of the territory's former international airport at Kai Tak.

There was a huge outcry when the government revealed plans to reclaim about 133 hectares of land from Victoria Harbour and develop the area as a township for some 2,60,000 people.

The sea body separating Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula is under so much stress already that people don't want it to be shrunk any further. Last January, the Court of Final Appeal ordered a rethink of all reclamation projects.

In July, the government gave in, produced a revised plan involving "no or minimum reclamation", and said consultations with environmentalists and other popular groups would be held over a period of two months beginning mid-September. A detailed final project outline, it said, would be ready by September 2005.

Kai Tak ceased to function as an airport in July 1998, when all operations were formally moved to a new facility, bigger and grander, at Chek Lap Kok on Lantau Island.

But people, not only in Hong Kong, still have strong emotions about Kai Tak, where the runway jutted like a finger into the sea and planes landed literally, and spectacularly, right in the city. Passengers could read all the rooftop billboards as they descended, even see the flicker of TVs in the living rooms of apartments along the way.

It was a thrill that people loved, especially pilots, since landing at or taking off from Kai Tak demanded a special kind of skill. However, for all the extreme hazards of its location, Kai Tak was a safe airport.

In all my many years of passing through it, I remember only one accident: a Chinese plane skidding off the runway and plunging into a shallow ditch. There were no deaths or injuries.

Not surprisingly, there are groups that want Kai Tak's runways, at least the famous Runway 13, preserved. A Swiss-based international aviation organisation, Federation Aeronautique Internationale, has suggested using the runways for recreational flying and training future pilots.

The rest of the area, it says, should be redeveloped as a tourist attraction with promenades, playgrounds and a giant Ferris wheel like the London Eye.

The old runway has since become home to a golf driving range, dozens of Kowloon Motor Bus buses, and thousands of tons of sand. The Hong Kong Aviation Club also remains at Kai Tak.

Several government offices and automobile dealerships have moved into some of its buildings. But the property, once belonging to two local billionaires, Ho Kai and Au Tak, whence the name has been derived, is too valuable to be left alone for odd uses.

Kai Tak is part of the South Kowloon district, which now awaits redevelopment. In addition to the idea of a township spread over 457 hectares of South Kowloon, the government is looking at Kai Tak as the location for a permanent cruise ship terminal.

The existing facility at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui is not large enough to handle the territory's burgeoning cruise business. For an increasing number of Asians, cruises have become an interesting lifestyle, and Hong Kong is Asia's undisputed cruising capital.

The business is so potentially lucrative that Li Ka-Shing, the multi-billionaire Hong Kong tycoon, has himself proposed to build a cruise terminal either at North Point on the island side or Hung Hom in Kowloon.

Other than a permanent cruise terminal, the government's plans for Kai Tak also include a 50,000-seat multipurpose stadium, a domestic and cross-boundary heliport, a metropolitan park and a refuse transfer station.

But these are its declared preferences. It's leaving it entirely to the public to decide how best should Kai Tak be redeveloped. Meetings and workshops will be held over the next two months where people will be invited to freely say what they think, but informal consultations will continue for a whole year.

This never happened in Hong Kong before, when it was ruled by the British. This is happening now, when it's under Beijing's remote control. Draw your own conclusions, if you wish to.