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Universal suffrage in Hong Kong
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A demonstrator’s hard hat spells out her message, as protesters disrupt train services at Admiralty MTR station during the morning rush hour on July 24. The protest was a response to the violence at Yuen Long MTR station late on July 21, when a mob of men in white T-shirts brutally attacked passengers, passers-by and those returning from an earlier demonstration in Central. Photo: Bloomberg
OpinionLetters

Letters | What Hong Kong needs right now is leadership: Carrie Lam is not providing it

  • The chief executive and her team have repeatedly condemned the violence but offered no leadership and no solution
  • Our highly paid public servants need to offer something other than bureaucratic doublespeak and a fear of losing face
Universal suffrage in Hong Kong
Letters
Letters
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I have waited patiently for the chief executive and her senior management team to show some leadership in these tumultuous times with hundreds of thousands of citizens demonstrating peacefully, and whose legitimate concerns were then hijacked by a violent minority of agitators.

Sadly, the chief executive, the secretary of justice, the secretary for security and the commissioner of police, along with all the legislators of this administration, were conspicuous by their absence until their appearance, too late in my view, at a press conference on July 22.

And what did we get when these senior government bureaucrats eventually appeared from their self-imposed heads-below-the-ramparts exile? Condemnation of violence; again.

Yes, I condemn the violence, as do many others. But what solutions and leadership were offered? None.

Well-known management guru Peter Drucker said: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” It is debatable whether the administration under Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has been doing things right but, undoubtedly, she and her senior management team, and I include that cabal of privilege in the Executive Council, have distinctly failed to show any leadership by doing the right things.
The police, in particular, have been put in an invidious position by this lack of leadership. Let us have an independent commission of inquiry into all aspects of what has gone wrong. I really would like to see some leadership, as distinct from bureaucratic doublespeak and a fear of losing face, by our highly paid servants of the people.

John J. Shanahan, Sai Kung

Solution for Hong Kong: a truly representative government

There is a way out of the current impasse: universal suffrage. One man, one vote to choose our future chief executive; accountable to the people of Hong Kong, instead of the central government.

Our previous chief executives as well as our present one, together with the vested interests (read: tycoons), have only kowtowed to Beijing without regarding the interest of Hong Kong people. Matters have now boiled over.

The liaison office of the central government as well as our government have totally ignored or misinterpreted the underlying sentiments in our society. But as I said, there is a way out. The present government has to resign, because they have failed to represent the sentiments of the people of Hong Kong. Moreover, they have failed to reassure the central government. Taiwan is laughing, because “one country, two systems” ultimately failed. Not because of Beijing, but because of a total failure of our government to communicate, comprehend and listen to the people they represent.

Beijing is right to ignore the reports of a resignation request from Lam, which her office has denied, in any case. First sort out the problems you created, then we can talk.

In conclusion, if you fail to understand or represent your people, it is time to go. Universal suffrage. One man, one vote.

Peter den Hartog, Tuen Mun

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