Speaking neutrally, it's a tie so far

Suddenly from out of nowhere, the term "political neutrality" - which has been used for decades to govern the conduct of Hong Kong's civil servants - has become a subject of such contention.

The debate is rather unexpected since it has been widely accepted that civil servants should remain politically neutral when exercising their duties.

If such a term had been difficult to comprehend, it would not have been used here and elsewhere for as long as memory can recall.

Kicking off the debate was Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan.

When she met lawmakers last week, Yeung revealed a plan to drop the requirement of political neutrality from the civil service code of conduct.

Her argument is a sophisticated brain-twister: to prevent the government's 180,000 direct employees from using the long-standing requirement to evade tasks.

It's a pity that she has not elaborated on those tasks that she had in mind and that civil servants want to avoid performing.

Had she been able to give more details, the additional information would give the debate greater insight.

As it stands, the debate is more academic than practical.

Yeung may be responding to concerns that some pro-Beijing lawmakers have voiced for awhile.

They believe civil servants should be even more patriotic than merely swearing loyalty to the country - and Basic Law and the civil service code of political neutrality is the last "protection" they want to dismantle.

A problem is that not even everyone in the pro-Beijing camp agrees.

For example, former chief executive Leung Chun-ying is openly opposed to the government plan, arguing that there no better way to express the essence of political neutrality than the term of political neutrality itself.

So what does the term mean?

In Leung's opinion, political neutrality means that civil servants cannot refuse, on the excuse of their political belief or affiliation, any task assigned to them by their superiors.

Then, what do others say about political neutrality?

According to Collins Dictionary, if a person or country adopts a neutral position or remains neutral, they do not support any one in a disagreement, war or contest.

Clearly, this dictionary definition only applies to a third party. Since civil servants are not a third party, this most simple and straight forward definition does not apply to them.

In the Atlas of Public Management, political neutrality is defined as a constitutional convention which provides that public servants should avoid activities that are likely to impair, or seem to impair, their political impartiality or the political impartiality of the public service.

A random search on the internet also reveals the following in the IvyPanda website: to conform with the requirement of political neutrality, public administrators are responsible for the realization of the politicians' decisions in relation to the definite policy without taking a side of this or that political force.

Apparently, it is sufficient to say that, while the meaning of political neutrality is academically clear, the civil service secretary and former chief executive are tied with each other in the current round of the debate.