Letters | Hong Kong chief sets poor example by refusing to answer questions

It appears the city’s chief executive is putting personal whim above an established and valuable procedure which has certainly improved communication between executive and legislature

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A large screen shows Chief Executive Carrie Lam at a question and answer session in the Legislative Council in January. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 6:45am, 3 Nov 2020Updated: 10:57am, 3 Nov 2020

Our Chief Executive Carrie Lam recently decided that she would not attend further question and answer sessions at the legislature, as her past experience of attending had been unpleasant. As your editorial of October 29 rightly pointed out, such sessions were started in 1992 by the then governor, Chris Patten, and have been working rather effectively for almost three decades (“Legco Q&A a key part of Carrie Lam’s job”).

It appears that the city’s chief executive is putting personal whim above an established and valuable procedure which has certainly improved communication between executive and legislature. Her subordinates – bureau secretaries, permanent secretaries, department heads and directorate officials – now have good reason to follow suit: first, their boss, that is the chief executive, is doing exactly that; and second, their experience of attending such sessions has also been not at all pleasant.

Notwithstanding, attendance by officials is part and parcel of their duties. The chief executive should not, and must not, lead in dereliction of duty.

Recently, a much talked about subject has been the latest coronavirus social distancing measures allowing six persons to gather indoors versus four persons outdoors. The government has a duty to explain clearly and logically to our citizens why it would be safer for six persons to gather in restaurants, eating, drinking and chatting with their masks off, as opposed to the same number of people in open air, with their masks on.

The logic (if any) behind such decisions is baffling, to put it mildly.

Francis Lo, North Point

Can the government start making sense, please?