Opinion | Lam should serve Hong Kong through action, not just words
Albert Cheng says despite Carrie Lam's pledge to serve the public interest she has shown that she has no wish to listen and compromise
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and his team of senior officials and advisers have found themselves embroiled in a series of controversies.
Former development minister Mak Chai-kwong was charged with cheating on government housing allowances; Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim sparked widespread public discontent by insisting on pushing ahead with the unpopular moral and national education; and Paul Chan Mo-po, the current secretary for development, had to fend off accusations of owning illegally subdivided flats and possible drink driving.
Most recently, executive councillor Franklin Lam Fan-keung was suspected of profiting from inside information after he sold two flats just weeks before cooling measures for the property market were announced. He has now taken an indefinite leave of absence from the Executive Council.
Despite the government's battered credibility, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor seems to have an inflated sense of self-esteem. During a talk at the Chinese University last week, she insisted that she has been serving the public in line with her conscience. If she had to rate her own performance on a scale of one to 10, she said she deserved full marks.
So, in her eyes, have the chief executive and his senior officials who have been engulfed in scandal not acted in line with their conscience?
Lam did not comment directly on her boss and colleagues, but she admitted that the administration is in a rather sticky situation, in which it is unable to forge ahead with policies without being confronted by strong public resistance.