00:00
Sampan ride to Trawler Natsot - Boats/sampans
You don't have to go far to see how the other half lives in prosperous Hong Kong... take a sampan through the Aberdeen storm shelter and you'll find the fishermen who struggle to survive.
Pause
00:28 Mr Ho on top of boat For decades Fisherman Ho, like most of HK's citizens, has lived by an unwritten contract - he catches the fish and earns a living, while the government subsidizes his family's housing, education and medical needs.
But lately that contract doesn't seem so fair.
Pause
00:50 For two months over summer, it's now illegal to fish in the South China sea; a ban has been in force aimed at replenishing dwindling fish stocks.
Grab: Ho Sing Yau (translation)
We will have to eat our savings while our boats are anchored.
Pause
01:14 Deep-sea fishing has become an endangered trade, thanks to more pollution, land reclamation and cheap imports. Mr Ho's future is now anything but secure.
Grab: Ho Sing Yau (translation) My generation is bad, but my son's generation will be even worse .
At this stage, I can still pay for their education, but I can't foresee the future. I don't know how the situation will change.
Like many in HK, he feels his standard of living slipping, because HK is being run by and for a select few. And he's not one of them.
MAP: Shows China. Reveal HONG KONG Special
Administrative Region
02:01 Pause - natsot
Christine and legislators on Environmentalist Christine Loh is one of HK's most popular legislators.
Site of Kai-Tak Airport
Pause - natsot
02:14 Today, she and her fellow legislators are on the site of HK's old airport, to scrutinise a massive decontamination exercise, so the land will be safe for future development.
02:30 Pause - natsot
After nine years as a legislator, this is one of her last duties; Christine Loh is one of three councillors quitting politics because she believes HK's post- Handover political arrangement doesn't work.
02:46 Today there is a deliberate attempt to make sure things are not moving forward, that the executive authorities is really trying to cramp the stlye of the legislature.
Pause
03:00 Though she's an elected politician, she can't translate into action, the demands of her voters, because power lies not with elected politicians, but with an Executive in the pockets of big business.
03:15
Grab: Christine Loh The executive authorities today seem to listen to business more than everyone else. They don't regard us as partners, they regard us as something to overcome.
03:38Handover Flashback Natsot - fireworks
Three years ago, Hong Kong celebrated the end of colonial rule and the beginning of a new era under China, where HK people would become masters of their own house.
03:48
Grab: Chris Patten Now HK people are to run HK. That is the promise and that is the unshakeable destiny...
short pause for applause...
04:091998 Elections The promise of self-rule within a Communist system, was hailed as a triumph, and HK people were told they could look forward to the gradual introduction of democratic elections, and a Legislature which by 2008 could be fully elected by universal suffrage.
Pause
04:35Christine Loh winning Shortly after the Handover, Ms Loh told the ABC she looked forward to a political future, which promised a bigger voice for the citizen.
04:48Grab: Christine (1998) Under the colonial system HK basically the people who had the most influence were inevitable the business community.
If business people want to promote a more conservative view, they have to run in politics as well, they can't rely on a patronage system any more.
05:04Walkies on the HK Peak short pause - natsot
But sadly, she now concedes, big business still relies on government favouritism, and the voice of the people has gone unheard. Ms Loh blames this on the Beijing-backed Chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.
05:27
Perhaps overlay with some of
Tung?
Grab: Christine Loh He really has very little appetite it seems for building a new relationship with the people, who have the peoples' mandate
Unfortunately Mr Tung doesn't seem to be able to get rid of the perception that the government favours certain businessmen.
05:49 Music or natsot
The 1997 Handover also marked the end of an incredible forty year economic boom; HK was hit by the worst economic slump in a generation, brought on by the Asian Financial crisis.
06:08 Natsot - corp video music
Tung/Disney stuff/GV's
Asian Games video To counter this, Mr Tung embarked on a grandiose drive to put HK back on the map.
With generous incentives Disneyland was lured to the territories already packed shores. And though HK is hardly a nation of athletes, itis bidding for the 2006 Asian Games as a confidence boosting measure. Many worry it could be a costly mistake.
06:47 Walkies with Steve Vines Commentators like Steve Vines say Mr Tung has been driven by HK's wealthy business tycoons out of self-interest.
06:57Grab: Steve Vines Well Mr Tung of course is a HK Tycoon and people don't forget that. He comes from a wealthy tycoon family which were part of the inner tycoon circle.
And his whole body language is what I call HK tycoon body language! He looks like an old Chinese company boss and guess what! He was an old Chinese company boss!
CCTV - NB Li Ka Shing is
The guy with black-framed glasses Natsot - from CCTV
07:19 New V/O sent via radio Though the public may not be happy with their leader, The Beijing Government is colluding with the tycoons to ensure he stays. HK's richest men recently paid a visit to Beijing, to lobby on the Chief Executive's behalf. The tycoons included Mr Tung's personal friend, influential billionaire Li Ka Shing and his son, emerging internet moghul, Richard Li.
Pause
07:50
Nighttime high tech montage?
Dragon Boats? While international investors view HK as a free trade centre, with institutions ensuring fairness and competition, Mr Tung's actions appear to ignore these.
Pause
In a bid to spearhead HK's drive to become the Asian leader of the New Economy, the government signed a multi-billion dollar deal to build a high-tech complex complete with luxury apartments in a development called Cyberport.
Natsot - cyberport music
08:26 Cyberport site But this was no ordinary deal.
The government by-passed the usual process of a land auction and gave a multi-million dollar piece of HK's disappearing waterfront to Cyberport's developers.
08:48 Richard Li ex APTN The company is HK's leading internet and telecom player, Pacific Century CyberWorks or PCCW. It's founder and chief shareholder, Richard Li, son of billionaire Li Ka Shing.
09:00Christine Loh I thought Cyberport was the dummest decision they could have made, if they couldn't actually have held a tender so that you don't have these allegations, I don't know why they did it the way they did.
09:21Steve Vines Now when you say, which they have by developing Cyberport, that they are going to kick start the high-tech industry or develop it and then you give that initiative to a member of the Li family, the most powerful business family in HK, you are sending two messages... one is that the government is directing industry and the other is that it chooses as its vehicle for for doing this, the most powerful business family in HK.
09:47 NB good shot of Companies under the Li flag already dominate the landscape from supermarkets to mobile phones. Li companies account for 30% of the sharemarket.
Li Ka Shing Also Cheung Kong CentreIs Li's HQ
Pause - natsot
10:00 Grab: Alex Arena Jane: Would Pacific Century have been awarded this project if Richard Li hadn't been a family friend of the Chief Executive?
Alex: I think it's the idea that was so special. I think that was what attracted the government.
(Not Connections?)
Not connectons
10:15 Grab: Gordon Wu Do you think the HK Government favours certain tycoons?
I don't think so, I don't think.. HK doesn't work like this.
Sir Gordon at work pause - Mozart upsound?
For a deeper explanation of how HK works, pay a visit to construction tycoon Sir Gordon Wu.
10:47 Natsot - pyramid drawing?
Sir Gordon's theory - shared by many tycoons, is no tax, no say in how HK is governed.
10:57 pause - natsot
Draws tax pyramid His view is that the wealthiest 30% of HK society pays the taxes, which in funds the subsidies for the remaining 70%. But give this 70% a greater share in the running of HK, say the tycoons, and it's a recipe for mob violence and economic ruin.
11:20 Grab: Sir Gordon Wu The trouble with HK would be because of the inexperience of these 70% of the people, and then they would vote in some radical people and they will say, ‘we're going to change the successful formula of HK.
So you believe that if there was democracy in HK there would be a free-for-all?
It certainly would change HK dramatically in that sense. Now suppose I am going for elections, you know my tactics would be very simple; get elected at any cost. So I'll go and say "vote for me, I'll guarantee you free lunch, free dinner and free breakfast. And what else do you want? I'll give it to you, after all, it's not my money.
12:00 Family prepares for dinner, Pause - natsot
Kids watch TV, Mum cooks
Dad does Nets Fisherman Ho and his family don't want the welfare payments tycoons like Gordon Wu say he'll demand if given the chance... he wants stable work and a future for his children.
But the family's evening meal gets leaner and leaner.
He doesn't see how the poor will benefit from schemes like the Cyberport, devised for and by the tycoons.
12:40 Grab: Fisherman To people like me, we don't have any say about the Cyberport. It's only an issue in the newspapers for ordinary citizens like me to read about. The rich have the power and the say to build what they want. 05-26-00-06
12:57 Rainy Protest Those dissatisfied with HK Inc. are a growing force.
Pause -natsot
Even the pro-business Liberal Party is calling for on the government to prop-up the ailing property market, down nearly 50% since the Handover.
13:32 Many who bought property before the Handover are now paying mortgages well in excess of the value of their homes. Some will pass the debt to the next generation.
13:45 Grab: Angry Man (translation) All my wealth is gone! I lost it all these past 3 years
If our lifestyle didn't have to be linked with property, HK's environment wouldn't be so bad. Isn't that right?
The Chief Executive is incapable, retarded, selfishly motivated. Am I right? Which high official has any talent?
14:00 Natsot
While the anger seethes, the powerless are likely to get angrier still. This is not what the new era promised .
14:10Grab: Christine Loh In some senses we are still in the Third World. I think the real difference between the First world and the Third World isn't what you look like, isn't about how much money you have. It's really about human development. Do you understand the consequences of your actions?
14:28 Grab: Steve Vines This is a ridiculous notion that you can somehow have a more sophisticated economic society and a positively primitive autocratic system and that's what these people believe in and if they carry on like that they are doing is building up an enormous bottleneck of discontent which will erupt.
MUSIC
14:56: Three years after the Handover... this wasn't the way it was meant to be.
The dream that life would be better under Chinese rule has virtually disappeared, Anger has replaced optimism and the tycoons who dislike democracy, for now, are winning the day.
15:18 ENDS
End credits: Reporter Jane Hutcheon
Camera Sebastian Phua
Sound Cleo Leung
Editor Garth Thomas