The public is not being allowed to discuss the substance of the changes, only the details of how they are to be implemented.If the government is not much interested in what the public has to say, it seems equally uninterested in the views of the new legislature, installed by China, replacing the previously elected body. Combining the ability to be indolent and brusque, they allowed monster queues to form and were unperturbed by the inconvenience caused.Meanwhile, the government has announced sweeping changes to the electoral system and allowed no more than nine days for a consultation exercise on the matter. A visit to the government vehicle licensing centre, one of the biggest departments dealing directly with the public, quickly revealed that officials were back to their old leisurely mode of what passes for service. This kind of heavy handed people management was a hallmark of the old style colonial regime given a battering by a determined Chris Patten who would announce district visits at the last minute to prevent officials from staging elaborate receptions.It seems unlikely that Mr Tung himself has ordered his officials to go back to their old ways but his style of government, which is similar to the style of running his family's shipping company, is conducive to the restoration of colonial practices.The new atmosphere of government is evident in both big and small ways.

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His office has gathered power within its confines and delegates authority with great reluctance.Officials have got the new message very quickly. On a recent visit to a school, pupils were instructed not to touch Mr Tung as this would inconvenience him. This is a far cry from the Patten days when no outstretched hand would be disappointed by lack of a tactile response.Residents of a public housing estate, visited by Mr Tung, were instructed not to raise any controversial subjects if he decided to talk to them and to emphasise positive things. Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive, is affable but highly reserved in communicating with the public, except in the most general of terms. A collective sigh of relief was almost audible from recalcitrant members of the service who were never really happy being exposed to daylight The new order does not encourage openness.

The Patten regime forced even the most humble civil servant to recognise that he or she was also responsible to the public, even if in only minor ways such as answering telephone enquiries and replying to letters in days rather than months. Now Mr Patten has gone. His insistence on open government and accountability was not met with enthusiasm by the 180,000 strong civil service, which saw itself as an elite responsible only to its own leaders. members of their community when they are not directly financed by them, but by convenient taxes distributed by the state," he said In other words, take heed.. Can it really be just a month since the installation of the new order in Hong Kong? The question arises because in this very short space of time a sea change has swept through the former colony's civil service which was forced kicking and screaming into a more open existence under the former Governor Chris Patten. Religion is nourished from taxes, an arrangement with which Mr Schmidt-Jorzig professes to be "not very happy"."The churches can easily become out of touch with ... The hapless policemen sent to arrest the family fled in terror when threatened with hellfire, and the plane bound for Ukraine was forced to take off without three of its passengers.The government is furious, and threatening to hit the churches where it hurts most.