Jake's View | The issue of illegal structures is a time bomb, not a lack of political sensitivity

“Based on the information that I have now, I do not feel this is an integrity issue, and that’s why it will not compromise Teresa’s position as the secretary for justice.”

-- Chief executive Carrie Lam Chen Yuet-ngor, SCMP Jan. 10

Take a car or a bus ride some day through the New Territories west of Shek Kong airfield and you will receive an object lesson in what “totally unrestricted free enterprise” means, when applied to town planning.

The words “godawful mess” are defined by what meets your eye there. Flashy, cheaply constructed three story, subdivided dwellings squashed together in an unregulated jumble are interspersed with ribbons of mud jammed with grime-encrusted cars, widely flung litter and the occasional slimy open nullah. Over the whole hangs a miasma of sewage or even more toxic aromas.

It just goes depressingly on and on. You find some brief escape from it when you come across West Rail’s Kam Sheung Road station, but then you are soon back into the nightmare. This is what happens when there is no development authority to interfere with greedy village chiefs who bear more resemblance to underworld bosses than to mayors.

There is some reason for it, of course. British authority never sat well on the New Territories and was always lightly exerted. Unfortunately, our immediate post-handover government officials kept up this tradition and now their successors find it increasingly difficult to correct.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of free enterprise; an apologist for capitalism. But government does have an essential role to play in regulating urban development for transport requirements, urban services, amenities and, of importance here, standards of construction. Over vast stretches of the New Territories, our government has abandoned this responsibility.