Macau authorities announced on Sunday procurement of three different vaccine products that are more or less the same as those purchased by the Hong Kong government. The only big difference is the right to choose – Carrie Lam still insisted earlier on that Hong Kong citizens could only choose to have a vaccination or not, but not which vaccine product. While both cities are special administrative regions with a chief executive, why is the option to choose possible in Macau, not in Hong Kong?

What Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat-Seng proves to the public is what Hong Kong people suggested long ago: the right to choose a vaccine product is perfectly justified – “We let the citizens pick the one they want. They can pick what they like…  (Macau) Government will not impose a choice on them”. When Hong Kong people demanded the option to choose earlier and the media requested the government to make public the vaccine products screening and information, querying the transparency of the government making a choice, not only did Carrie Lam not further make it known to the public, she also did not safeguard Hong Kong people’s right to choose. On the contrary, she criticized that some people “politicize” the inoculation programme. Is it then “politicized” in Macau, where people can choose? Why can’t Hong Kong people make a choice?

What’s most farcical is that before the government answered the enquiries, there was a “review” published by a pro-government media outlet giving an account of it, pointing out that Macau people “suspecting China” does not get into shape, thus the option to choose not an issue. It also blames Hong Kong people for “politicization”, hence the government being afraid of the fact if vaccine products from the West are in short supply, it would “displease the Central” – so, “being afraid of displeasing the Central” is “non-politicization”, while the citizens being concerned about the insecurity and ineffectiveness of China-made vaccine, querying the data transparency and watchdogs not performing their best are “unscientific” and “politicization”. Putting the horse before the cart and calling white black and black white, such an argument is an epitome of the thorough degradation of Hong Kong.

If the vaccine from China is better, what is the fear about? If it is poorer and Hong Kong people are still forced to take it and not allowed to choose, this is really an act to “prioritize politics over conscience” with no regard for Hong Kong people’s lives in exchange for political capital. As Carrie Lam said, Hong Kong people still have the right to choose “not to get vaccinated”. Inasmuch as any vaccine products involve a risk, and their side effect and the possible allergies caused are different, those who are just resistant to the vaccine from China will end up refusing to get inoculated for the silly measure put forward by the government, which will prompt even more people to do so.

That about 30 million doses of vaccine bought by the government will probably be wasted for the people provided with no option would refuse to get injected is just a mere trifle, while the coronavirus epidemic rambling on to paralyze all walks of life with no expiry date is a big deal. Does the government spare no effort to contain the virus and alleviate citizens’ resistance to vaccination, or spare no effort to butter up the Central by buying vaccine from China? Hong Kong people know it fairly well at heart.

Refusing to carry out thoroughgoing border shutdown and being apathetic towards mitigating citizens’ worry about the vaccine products so as to get the whole population vaccinated, the government has recently just aligned itself with the blue-ribbon KOLs to put forward a heap of nonsensical advice. For one, Lee See-yin and her like lashed out at medical personnel in July for demanding border shutdown, which was, in her words, tantamount to “an act with no regard for lives” that needed to be “penalized”, and urged the citizens to “trust in the government’s preventive measures against the epidemic”. She ended up an exemplar of blindly believing in the government, which was the most sorrowful mishap. Is a popular Covid-19 test efficacious? Take Korea. It used to have most people tested for the disease, but now is confronted with the problem of a sharp rebound.

Wat Wing-yin, who said in February that everyone putting on a mask would “turn out trepidation”, has now gone so far as to blame the government for “reacting unreasonably slowly” and “not being stern enough”. Who “doesn’t have faith in the government” now? Have those who have since always been showing support for the government and even providing the government with cheesy advice now made an ugly U-turn? When will they make an apology to the medical personnel on strike for what they said?

Who was still fantasizing about travel bubbles from September to October? Who was still having a pipe dream that borders could open up with a popular test for Covid-19 coupled with a health code system? A bunch of representatives of various industries made a demand for lifting the ban every day. Since the bubbles burst, opening up of borders has turned into city lockdown; the government has just been increasing and reducing the number of diners allowed in eateries and their opening hours. If the measures can’t prevent the virus from entering the city, are they of any help? They are just formulated for a smidgen of bigwigs from the mainland at the expense of the rights and safety of a whole lot of Hong Kong people. The pro-government camp has been putting up a show literally all along, deluding themselves and others, sparing no effort in doing just one thing: passing the buck to someone else!

(Kay Lam, commentator)

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