Donald Tsang's campaign for Hong Kong's highest public office is set to acquire a new dimension today, when he reaches out to the masses to explain his philosophy and the values of leadership.

Tsang is reportedly keen to win people's understanding and support for the trust-building blueprint he has for the SAR. Going by his campaign remarks, he has set himself the goal of bringing harmony to society and of making the people the base of his governance.

His campaign tour the first to the districts since he launched it last week will begin with a symbolic stop at the former Police Married Quarters in Aberdeen Street, Sheung Wan, and also visit Central District, where he spent his childhood.

Tsang and his entourage will proceed to Aberdeen to visit fishermen in the typhoon shelter there, followed by a fast-food lunch with hundreds of white-collar workers at IFC in Central that is considered the heart of Hong Kong's commercial activities.

But despite all this, Tsang remained "relaxed" yesterday, according to public accountant Edward Chow who, along with 12 Election Committee (EC) members from the accountancy sector, met him for an hour and 45 minutes in his Wan Chai election headquarters.

"He's in full control of all issues and answering all questions," said Chow, who is also the president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA)." He has given us the impression that given his experience, he is sincere in continuing to serve Hong Kong. I'd say his sincerity is up to the mark." Chow and many EC members in the sector support Tsang's bid for the chief executive's (CE) office. Chow said they discussed a wide range of subjects, from taxation to public livelihood issues such as housing rent.

Former legislator Eric Li, who recently won an accountancy sector seat in EC, described the discussion as "frank and friendly". "At the meeting, Tsang took the initiative to talk about the Executive Council (ExCo) and the Commission on Strategic Development (CSD). Speaking of himself, Tsang hoped to include more professional talents in these bodies," Li said. "He agreed with our views (on professionals' participation in society)."

The delegation told Tsang that enthusiastic professionals didn't have enough clear channels to contribute to society even though many would like to play a more active role to make governance better, Li said.

"We told him that we'd like to see a government that is serious about the principles of fair play and knowledge and provides clear channels for the knowledge-based and professionals to participate more in government affairs," he said.

But Li denied having asked Tsang to set aside a seat in ExCo for the accountancy sector.

Li said the delegation expressed concern over the widening disparity between salaries in the public and private sectors, for that could deal a blow to the efforts to strengthen the administration because more professionals might leave the government for the private market.

"We told him that if the government remains rigid, talented people wouldn't join it. We also invited him to count the number of professionals in the existing government advisory bodies to assess if they had a fair participation," he said.

Grooming political talents is high on Tsang's election manifesto, for he believes that is the key to the successful implementation of "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong" in an executive-led government.

In his campaign speech before EC members last week, Tsang had promised to finalize a plan within two years to groom local political talents. Paul Chan, CPA vice-president and another EC member of the delegation, quoted Tsang as having said that the authorities would consult the public when the time was ripe for a goods and services tax (GST).

Tsang also met members of the social welfare sector, and was, according to a participant, urged not to cut back funds for non-government organizations.

Before those two meetings, environmental affairs manager of the Friends of the Earth Hahn Chu invited Tsang to a forum next week to delineate his environmental policies. Chu said Tsang's manifesto was short on green policies.

Tsang will reportedly be meeting members of the education sector tomorrow.

The July 10 by-election to choose a new CE was necessitated because of Tung Chee-hwa's resignation as CE in March. Besides Tsang, legislators Lee Wing-tat and Chim Pui-chung have announced their intention to contest the bypoll. Both are still far from securing the minimum 100 nominations from the 800-member EC to officially pose a challenge to Tsang. Nominations close on June 16.

(China Daily HK Edition June 9, 2005)