Opinion | Personal sacrifices? Understanding? Carrie Lam is hopelessly out of touch with Hongkongers

Arrogance and a sense of entitlement have always seemed to be part and parcel of being a senior government official in Hong Kong. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor exhibited those attributes in spades at the weekend and in a television interview last week, talking down to citizens with the analogy that they were children and should listen to her.

People turning out in record numbers calling for Lam's resignation are a symptom of such thinking. They wouldn’t feel the need to come out in such force if they were being treated respectfully and having their needs and concerns met. Insistence on pushing through a bill introduced without public consultation to enable the extradition of residents to other jurisdictions was the last straw after limited action on a host of issues affecting everyday life, unaffordable housing, poor working conditions and the environment chief among them.

Lam said the legislation was her idea and to address justice for a murder committed in Taiwan, but its purpose seemed more about Beijing silencing critics and opponents by sending them to the mainland, where the conviction rate is 99.9 per cent compared to between about 50 and 80 per cent in local courts, depending on the level of justice being handed down.

But it is not just the extradition legislation that residents are angry about. They fear the further erosion of protections guaranteed under “one country, two systems”, the governing principle that sets Hong Kong apart from the rest of China.