My Take | The impossible tasks facing Carrie Lam
Chief executive-elect is facing calls to restart the political reform package on one side and to enact Article 23 on the other; doing either – or both – is suicide
You can’t find two more moderate, reasonable and intelligent politicians than Ronny Tong Ka-wah and Jasper Tsang Yok-sing from opposite sides of the political divide.
The former Civic Party lawmaker wants chief executive-elect Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to relaunch political reform to achieve full democracy. The ex-president of the Legislative Council thinks she needs to legislate Article 23 of the Basic Law against treason, sedition, subversion and secession.
The logic of their arguments is unassailable. What’s more, they don’t just speak for themselves, but powerful and opposing forces in our society today. If we give up on political reform, Tong argues, societal divisions will only worsen. Tsang makes an analogous point: if we continue to postpone legislating on Article 23, the central government will run out of patience and be tempted to intervene unilaterally to extend national security laws to cover Hong Kong.
Of course, once we have an acceptable system of universal suffrage, the bitter destructiveness of the pan-democratic and localist camps should dissipate, and a more rational and mature opposition should emerge.
Likewise, successful legislation under Article 23 would give Hong Kong more breathing space as Beijing would no longer need to keep us on such a short leash.