Opinion | Carrie Lam has bought time with Hong Kong extradition bill withdrawal: now she must find the means of change

It may have been too much to imagine that a government which cannot even reform a broken taxi system could have handled a major political issue. But immobility is the hallmark of a system where the entrenched become ever more so and Beijing fears change as dangerous.

As the conservative political philosopher Edmund Burke wrote 250 years ago: “A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation”. So, instead of trusting that Hong Kong people have the common sense to understand their own interests and vote accordingly, the government remains locked in a stasis which angers and frustrates many.

That it has taken almost three months of constant turmoil to withdraw an extradition bill which should never have been introduced speaks of the immobility of the system. That no one has taken responsibility for the disaster is even more stunning.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has been quoted as saying she would have liked to resign. If this is true, she should have the courage to follow her conscience and quit.

Is she so beholden to Beijing? If so, she has no business being leader of Hong Kong. If it is not true, it shows an unwillingness to take responsibility for the chaos caused both by the bill and her very belated responses to protests.

Whatever happens now, the reputation of Hong Kong, particularly among foreign, and probably also mainland, businesses has been damaged. All have seen that, for weeks, policy has appeared to be made by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and implemented by a police force prone to overreaction and seeing itself as the righteous punisher of dissent, rather than simply keeper of public order (including the freedom of assembly).