In one corner we have Milton Friedman, Nobel prize winner and founder of the Chicago school of economics. On the other, National People's Congress member and geography professor Victor Sit Fung-shuen. What could bring these two together? Donald Tsang's replacing of "positive non-interventionism" with "small government, big market". Friedman responded with an editorial in the WSJ titled Hong Kong Wrong where he laments the end of John Coperthwaite's policy of benign neglect and the rise of a more activist government, even though The Don was simply stating what has been happening in practice for years. In response Professor Sit has told Milton he just doesn't understand the Big Lychee:

Instead of Friedman's vision for Hong Kong as a free-market city on a hill, NPC delegate Victor Sit Fung- shuen said Tuesday, its success requires the opposite approach: a dose of Singapore-style government intervention.

"Even though Mr Friedman has won a Nobel Prize in economics, he has never understood Hong Kong," Sit wrote in a combative letter to the local media...
But Sit said Tsang is right to throw away that philosophy, calling a stronger government hand the only way forward for the development of the high-tech, legal, scientific and financial sectors.

Sit, a local delegate to the NPC in Beijing since 1993, as well as a professor at Hong Kong University's School of Geography, argued that Hong Kong needs to lure more rising stars out of the private sector and into the government, and put them to work drafting innovative policies that will sustain Hong Kong's prosperity...When asked who is qualified to prescribe economic philosophies for Hong Kong, Sit said there are many experts available. "There are quite a lot of names - but not Friedman."

"How many bad ideas can you put together in one place?" asked Work, chief executive of The Lion Rock Institute, a local free-market think-tank. "It's really surprising that anyone from Hong Kong would suggest we throw away the legacy of freedom that built us, and mimic the policies that have created one of the most repressed countries in Asia," he said...[but] Sit may have the ear of the chief executive too. He said he had spoken with Tsang "more than once" about a more proactive government approach. "I think he understands me," Sit said.

Should Professor Sit seriously think Singapore is worth emulating, it would be worth him spending 10 minutes reading the famous Why Singapore is a Pathetic Place by Hemlock, which could now add the FEER banning and repression of dissent during the recent World Bank/IMF meeting. Mind you, that website is probably illegal in Singapore. Pathetic.