Our chief executive says he doesn't lose sleep over the scandals that hound him. Maybe he should. Granted, lying awake at night prevents the necessary recharging of body and mind, but the tossing and turning has its own benefits. It forces you to think about the worries that keep you awake. And Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has plenty to worry about.
The late US president Ronald Reagan slept so soundly through the many scandals he should have worried about that he left office looking younger than when he went in. The difference was that the people loved him. That cannot be said of Tsang. Some have actually started comparing him unfavourably with his unpopular predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa. That alone should keep anyone awake.
By Tsang's own admission, only about half of the people like him. That's actually quite good for a leader of a free society in his second and final term. The trouble is, the people who don't like him dislike him intensely. They think he is arrogant, in cahoots with the tycoons, subservient to Beijing and oblivious to their many problems. They think he just doesn't understand them any more, that he can't see things from their perspective. This is not necessarily true, but it is what half the people believe.
That should be Tsang's greatest worry - that half the people are convinced he has lost the credibility to be their leader. He needs to lose some sleep over the fact that he's past the stage when he can convince them otherwise. Hong Kong is now, more than ever, such a divided community that no one wants to compromise any more on the big issues.
At least in Tung's time, the people were so united in despising him that the solution became simple. Beijing dumped him. But not all the people despise Tsang. Half the people think he's doing a good job. They believe the Tsang-haters are troublemakers out to get him.
This great divide has forced Tsang into lame-duck status well before his time. There is now a growing impression, even among some of his allies, that he can no longer govern effectively.
