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Behind the Curtain: Incompetence in fighting virus may be Carrie Lam’s Achilles’ heel for Beijing trip

蘋果日報 2020/12/15 09:37


Recently it was said that Chief Executive Carrie Lam would officially visit Beijing this week. By yesterday, however, there was still no official announcement on the trip. On the other hand, supporters and ex-colleagues of Lam’s predecessor Leung Chun-ying and people in the pro-establishment camp have penned articles criticizing Lam. According to some source in the political circles, it is for now hard to say whether those articles imply the authors have got wind of some information from the north and therefore acted on that information or that they are simply trying to drum up support for Leung for him to be the next chief executive. Nevertheless, in light of whom the articles target, one can venture that even though Lam toes Beijing’s political line without hesitation, her poor performance in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic remains her Achilles’ heel, the source said.

Attacks from the pro-establishment camp

The source told me that Lam is well aware that the central government places greater importance on people’s political allegiance than competence. That is why after delivering her policy address, Lam kept talking about her political achievements concerning the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, and yet when speaking of the pandemic, she often blames Hong Kong people for being uncooperative and not “well-behaved”. The underlying message is that her administration is not responsible for Hong Kong’s failure to combat the pandemic. However, according to the pro-establishment camp’s articles critical of Lam, “it is precisely Lam who is responsible” for the city’s poor performance in fighting the virus. The writings indicate that no matter how hard Lam tries to show her political allegiance and how successful she has been in putting down the opposition, “Beijing has lowered the score for her”.
Another political source pointed out that when Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng attended the ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in October, he reportedly talked with Xi Jinping about the pandemic situation in Macau and Xi acknowledged Macau’s work. This indicates the central government cares about the pandemic work in both Macau and Hong Kong, according to the source. However, Lam has repeatedly made mistakes in the fight against the virus. “Every time when a problem arises, she accuses people of being uncooperative. Now even the pro-establishment camp is saying she should be held responsible. How can she still shirk her responsibility?” Before Lam’s trip to Beijing, Hong Kong’s anti-pandemic measures have once again come under criticism. “[The government] had to clarify [after an official press conference] whether Pfizer has to do with one of the vaccines it has ordered. And the designated quarantine hotels for returning travelers do not take these guests until December 22. So people can’t check in at these hotels yet. What was the point of announcing the hotel list?” With such a report card on her anti-pandemic work, “one wonders if Lam would blame Hong Kong people for misbehaving when she meets central government leaders”, the source added.
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