Alienation refers to the transformation of the original state into a new state that is different, or even contradictory and conflicting, from the original state due to the emergence of mutating factors.

Carrie Lam and a group of SAR officials have joined the government as administrative officials during the colonial era and were trained in the colonial model of governance. Due to the limitations of this model, they are a group of elite technocrats who are narrow-minded, adhere to rules, conventions and procedures, inflexible, isolated and arrogant. Yet in the past, they would try their best to accept the basic principles of good governance such as restraint of authority, public accountability, fair process, making judgments based on comprehensive facts, listening to various opinions including opposition views, and respecting the right of citizens to free expression.

Carrie Lam and these SAR officials have undergone alienation before and after the new era of National Security Law. By now, their way of thinking and the language they use are not much different from those of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, and it is difficult to see them displaying the values, beliefs and class cultivated by British training.

How does this alienation happen? Many studies have tried to explore the psychological state of these people. One might have a little sympathy for this group of home-grown Hong Kong bureaucrats because when they entered the job, they never imagined that they would one day be caught in a fierce struggle between two powerful political forces and have to choose one of the two.

Little did they expect that the determination of Hong Kong people to fight for democracy would become stronger and stronger from 2003 onwards. The SAR government was completely powerless to respond to the waves of intense social movements. They also did not think that, from the beginning, the CCP had no intention of allowing Hong Kong to have real universal suffrage. When the CCP decided to completely ban Hong Kong people’s demand for democracy, these officials were caught in the middle and had to choose a side. This is the mutation factor that caused alienation.

The first state of mind is that no one will continue to do something that he considers evil and must find a reason for himself to believe that his choice is correct. When he chooses to stay rather than leave, he has to accept the CCP’s political narrative at face value. The so-called Western countries are determined not to let China become strong, so they are doing everything possible to prevent the rise of China; Hong Kong’s resistance for democracy is the result of speculators manipulated by Western countries, instigating and misleading Hong Kong people, especially the young generation, to challenge national sovereignty; the future of Hong Kong can only complement the development of mainland China, and any obstacle to the development of the country and the integration of Hong Kong with mainland China is a selfish or ignorant act lacking a global perspective.

Therefore, they are convinced that the protesters are either political speculators or ignorant people who have been incited by others. Condemned by all, they have to refute everyone and prove themselves to be right. The alienation of Carrie Lam and the SAR officials is precisely for the purpose of implementing this new political discourse, and they willingly abandon the values and beliefs they have always upheld in the past.

To remain, there is no escaping change. But why does no one “jump ship” at the critical moment to preserve what they have always believed in? The second psychological state that causes most officials to stay in office is the love for the thrill of power. Power not only corrupts but it is also addictive.

These officials joined the government after graduating from university, wielding more and more power under a non-democratic political system without being accountable to the public. Between power and belief, power must be far more attractive. As long as you can adjust your faith, you can have the best of both worlds, so why not do it?

Combined with the above psychological state, they believe that only they know how to make good use of their power for the benefit of the public, and what they do is not for personal gain. Even if other people object, it is only because these people do not understand what is really good for Hong Kong. After the alienation, they convinced themselves from the bottom of their hearts that the new set of political beliefs from the new master, even if different from the previous set of beliefs, were the true righteousness. By doing so, the transformation process would be smoother and the mentality can be maintained in a “normal” state.

However, Carrie Lam and other SAR officials need another psychological state to remain “normal.” They all need each other. Naturally, they know that they have deviated from the majority of Hong Kong people, and they will not be able to gain the full trust of the CCP, leaving them in a dilemma. The only ones who understand themselves are those who have chosen to stay behind, thus forming an alienated community. They can only lean on each other to weather the storm, and stay together to further strengthen their belief that the choice to stay behind is the right thing to do, alienating them even more.

I do not know how far from the truth this process of alienation is, but one thing is for sure, Carrie Lam and these SAR officials are the sorrow of Hong Kong.

(Benny Tai Yiu-Ting is a Hong Kong legal scholar and democracy activist.)

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