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Letters

In many ways I feel sorry for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. She is wedged between a rock and a hard place.
It is plain that the people of Hong Kong want no truck with Beijing or the Communist Party. The problem for Lam is to give effect to the democratically expressed wishes of the people. No matter what Lam does, the Communist Party will get its nose out of joint, so she might as well be brave and “bite the bullet”, as the saying goes.
She has to make the legislature accountable to the people and end the tendency to ban pro-democracy candidates.
The world is watching, and will be sympathetic to any measure promoting democracy, freedom and human rights in Hong Kong. Any interference by Beijing will be seen as the exercise of brute force it would be, and be roundly condemned.
If she has the fortitude, Lam could be the heroine of Hong Kong’s struggle for self-determination, or one of its casualties.
The choice is hers.
Gavan Duffy, Queensland
Why Hong Kong needs a shake-up at the top
The people of Hong Kong have spoken. The results of the district council elections have clearly shown that the governing mandate of the “coalition” between the present administration under Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong is now null and void.
A major government reshuffle is now a must, lest Hong Kong become utterly ungovernable. But I think this is already the case.
Francis Lo, North Point
What Lee Kuan Yew would have done
We do know what Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew would have done in an urban crisis like Hong Kong’s (“Hong Kong campus protests: what would Lee Kuan Yew do?”, November 25).
Starting in 1955 with the Hock Lee Bus Company strike and disorder that followed, left-wing political thought and activity began to rise in Singapore. It reached the point where the ostensibly leftist People’s Action Party, which Lee had created as his own, looked set to become genuinely leftist and veer out of his control.
Lee was saved when the chief minister, Lim Yew Hock, a labour leader, used colonial emergency powers to detain large numbers of leftists, including those who could have been a threat to Lee.
Lim was successful. Indeed one wonders whether Lee would have survived politically without his crackdown. Lim’s harsh tactics, however, alienated enough Singaporeans to lose the 1959 election, ironically enough to Lee, who then embarked on his lifelong rule.
Lim later moved to Malaysia and converted to Islam.
So what would Lee have done in Hong Kong? My guess: waited for Lim Yew Hock.
Arthur Waldron, Philadelphia


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Hong Kong district council election

How Hong Kong can still find a heroine in Carrie Lam

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses a press conference on November 26, a day after the district council election results dealt a crushing defeat to parties supportive of her government. Photo: AP

For Hong Kong, after the tear gas and petrol, bricks and barricades – a time for hope and peace

Christmas illuminations form the backdrop as anti-government protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks hold up their open palms to signify their five demands, at a rally against an emergency mask ban in East Tsim Sha Tsui on November 5. Photo: Felix Wong

2.9 million Hongkongers have spoken. Will Carrie Lam and Beijing heed their call for political reform?

Illustration: Craig Stephens

What’s next for Hong Kong protesters after the high of opposition bloc’s crushing victory at elections?

Protesters call for their five demands to be met during a protest in Central. Photo: AP

Police officers guard the perimeter around the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hung Hom. 25NOV19 SCMP / Sam Tsang

Anti-government protesters hold a lumchtime rally at the International Finance Centre (IFC) in Cental. 21NOV19 SCMP / Xiaomei Chen