Opinion | Where is the joy in JoyYou Card?

By Philip Yeung, university teacher

PKY480@gmail.com

First of all, the name sucks. Utterly crass and cringe-worthy, it sounds stupid and is stupid. Worse, it represents an act of gratuitous cruelty to senior citizens. Without a doubt, it takes the cake for bureaucratic insanity. The opposite of what its name suggests, this joyless and callous card grew out of the need to discourage the abuse of the concessionary Octopus Card for citizens 65 or older. As card holders can purchase multiple cards, the spare ones often find their way into the hands of their relatives to cut their cost of city commute.

But a simple problem in the hands of a by-the-book, desk-bound bureaucrat becomes a nightmarish complexity. The cure, in this case, is worse than the disease. Predictably, functionaries resort to creating another layer of bureaucracy, blissfully unaware of the Unintended Consequences Syndrome, at the root of which lies a lack of compassion, a 360-degree look at the problem, and an incapacity to walk in the shoes of the people they are supposed to serve. People-friendly it is not.

The JoyYou card is an object lesson in how not to govern.

It is an acute embarrassment to the Chief Executive who is determined to deliver good government to the people.

To enjoy the $2 concessionary fare on public transit, the aged poor are made to jump through hoops. In Macau and Zhuhai, seniors travel free on public transit. Macau has a simple device to deter fraudulent use. When the senior travel card is scanned, it loudly identifies the user as such. There is another effective and lucrative deterrence, by simply imposing an on-the-spot fine of $1500 for misuse, much like a smoking violation, thereby boosting the government’s coffers.  It makes perfect economic sense.

Instead, seniors are bent out of shape trying to go online to download an application form, fill it, then mail it with return postage and then wait seven days for the result.  In the thick of the digital age, this is utter nonsense—first go online, then offline to submit an application with a self-stamped envelope---a sheer torture for seniors who dislike dealing with officials and are clumsy navigating the digital process. Officials forget that this bureaucratic two-step is giving thousands of Hong Kong elderly living in the Greater Bay Area a nagging headache. Whoever dreams up this bird-brained scheme deserves permanent residency in the infamous mad house in Castle Peak.

Before it cures the problem, it has created fresh ones.

To receive the JoyYou card seniors must first surrender their existing concessionary Octopus card. Twenty thousand seniors have already done so. The trouble is, they have previously used the Octopus card to receive government consumer vouchers or cash handouts. They must now find another way to be credited for the upcoming government largess. Community centers are flooded with calls for help from panicking seniors. They are told to go through yet another bureaucratic step to link their JoyYou card with the old Octopus card. If you enjoy seeing helpless seniors running around in circles, you have come to the right place. It is idiocy like this that makes the poor curse the government.

Maddeningly, the JoyYou card brings neither joy nor extra benefits to seniors. It only brings them anxiety attacks. To enjoy the usual government discounts or exemptions their existing HKID card suffices. It is thus an unforgivable waste of public resources on the enormous costs of producing another useless card, plus manning emergency help centers to bail seniors out of this bind. What began as a simple problem has spiraled into a head-spinning, man-made misery.

This is because bureaucrats are living on another planet. They don’t even know how a senior citizen smell, much less think. I bet the author of this misery must be proudly claiming credit for yet another new government “project” for yet another costly and meaningless monstrosity.

So, what are we to do? I say eat humble pie, and kill this card forthwith, before it brings more misery to more seniors. The continuing existence of this card is an indictment against bureaucratic incompetence and insensitivity. Until it disappears, it will live forever in infamy---pointless, thoughtless and joyless.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

Read more articles by Philip Yeung:

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