My TakeCarrie Lam to carry on thanks to political timing
- Despite many calling for the chief executive and senior ministers to go in the wake of the extradition bill debacle, she is likely to remain until the end of her current term
Many people are demanding heads to roll for the extradition bill debacle. They want not just Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to resign, but also her unpopular secretary for justice, Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, and security chief John Lee Ka-chiu.
Whether they did wrong (in the eyes of the public) or because they have failed (so far as Beijing is concerned), the trio will be held responsible one way or another. But with official resignations, timing is everything.
If the past is any guide, Cheng and Lee may be let go soon.
After a similar public resistance in July 2003 that forced Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, to shelve proposed national security laws, then security chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee quit just weeks afterwards. Tung didn’t resign until 2005.
A career policeman, Lee has been a good soldier under Lam. But he might have had a happier ending if he had stayed in the force.
Cheng has been a disaster from the start. Her two far more competent predecessors, Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung and Wong Yan-lung, would have warned Lam about the backlash, especially from the legal community. Both would have understood its full implications. Cheng was clueless.