Agree to disagree

Zeman, himself sits on the government's Economic Development Commission chaired by city Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

Zeman disagreed that there will be no opposition voice in the city after the changes are made to the city's electoral system.

"Not necessarily just because you're a patriot, if the government did something wrong, you cannot point it out," he said.

"We don't always agree with everything. Even though I agree with it, I might think I have a better way. I'll voice my opinion. Same with other members sometimes," he said.

He thinks the point is people can have an opposition voice, but don't have craziness, like jumping up on tables and fighting.

Back to thorny issues

In fact, with an improved electoral system in place, he said Hong Kong government will be able to speed up solving those deep-seated, acute problems, such as the housing issue and land shortage.

Among the good cases in point were many that employed out-of-the-box thinking to address issues, such as thorny social problems and those related to people's livelihoods issues, such as the mega land reclamation program near Lantau Island to boost housing proposed earlier by the government.

In 2019, Hong Kong was ranked as the world's most unaffordable housing market for a 10th straight year, according to an annual survey by urban planning policy consultancy Demographia.

According to the Hong Kong's Housing Authority, an applicant who applies for public rental housing on average needs to wait almost six years before he or she can move into a unit.

If the government and society can put more effort into looking at different solutions, more houses will be built more quickly and the lives of people who are suffering will be changed earlier, Zeman said.