Opinion | From tolls to reclamation, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s policies show open disdain for the very people she should be serving

Since the chief executive unveiled her second policy address, which featured what she clearly felt to be very bold measures, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has been busy doing her media rounds and defending her decisions.

Lam obviously anticipated resistance. When asked how she felt about her policy address’s low approval rating – the second-lowest score given to a leader in the city since 2010 – she said that, with so many measures, the policy address was bound to upset people. Her political calculus seems sound – at least she does not espouse a “the less you do, the less chance for you to commit an error” attitude.

But Lam has been wearing her arrogance on her sleeve. Take her cross-harbour tunnel toll plans, for example. She talked down to lawmakers who oppose them, saying she understood that legislators would oppose the change because they are afraid of losing votes, as if she is “above it all”.

Lawmakers, even pro-government ones, questioned whether diverting traffic would resolve the congestion. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong’s Ben Chan Han-pan questioned the policy’s effectiveness, particularly whether the diverted traffic would cause congestion elsewhere. Lam’s non-answer? That the policy was based on results from a Transport Department study.