Time for the government leaders to wake up

Hong Kong is now in the midst of a political crisis of immense and unprecedented proportions.
Unfortunately, all the city's leaders did over the past few week was pretend as if everything was fine and that it was business as usual.
To them, “the show must go on”. It seems they couldn’t care less about the escalating protests, not to mention the non-cooperation movement that is often paralyzing the city’s rush-hour traffic.
Isn't it time for the leaders to wake up?
In the study of political ethics, we often describe those who are willing to take political risks and assume additional responsibilities during a political crisis as “taking up the slack”.
On some occasions, there are social problems which are deemed too difficult or too sensitive to handle, and hence no one is willing to deal with them head-on.
When this happens, I believe every average individual in society has the responsibility to “take up the slack”, particularly when the personal freedoms and interests are being eroded by injustice.
It is something that all members of the public should do, and it is even more so for politicians and also absolutely must for the political leaders.
True, protesters may also need to make some “concessions” in order to achieve peaceful resolution of a crisis.
Nevertheless, as a person in charge of the welfare of 7.4 million citizens in the city, shouldn’t Chief Executive Carrie Lam at least summon up some courage to face the issues, rather than continue to push the young people and frontline police officers into the spiral of violence?
The full article appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Journal on Aug 5
Translation by Alan Lee
– Contact us at [email protected]
RC
-
More government services can soon be paid online
Oftentimes, crisis is the best agent to trigger changes, which would otherwise take much longer to happen. As more people go online to shop or order food through apps amid the pandemic, the
-
Today’s surreal Hong Kong: Be careful what you say or do Michael Chugani
Hong Kong politics is now surreal. Think twice before you say or do anything. Forget about Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s assurances that free speech still exists. It does not. Expect a
-
Striking a balance between development and conservation Ryan Ip Man-ki and Jacqueline Hui
Despite the land shortage, Hong Kong needs to strike a sensible balance between building houses and caring for our natural habitats, that is why the government should keep an open mind and look at
-
Make good use of advanced technology to curb the epidemic Dr. Winnie Tang
The fourth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic is unpredictable and unstable, it is inevitable that the public is experiencing anti-epidemic fatigue. The epidemic has lasted for a year, do we have a more
-
Civil disservice Neville Sarony
For anyone in a position of power, whether they seized it or were elected to it, there is a correlative responsibility to those over whom the power is exercised. Whereas it is true that autocrats’
-
Adelson made Macao, Macao made Adelson
-
Civil disservice
-
Today’s surreal Hong Kong: Be careful what you say or do
-
Make good use of advanced technology to curb the epidemic
-
England’s lockdown lessons
-
Striking a balance between development and conservation
-
Surprises keep hitting the financial market
-
COVID-19 and the Doomsday Clock
-
More government services can soon be paid online