Carrie Lam listened to 19 Hong Kong elites after ignoring millions of marchers in June – that’s why the bill withdrawal has solved nothing

If only Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had decided to announce the government’s plans to withdraw the extradition bill on the evening of June 9, when a million people peacefully took to the streets.

Had she done that, instead of issuing the statement that the government would proceed with the second reading of the bill, we would not be where we are today: so desperate that the government is spending public money on full-page ads in overseas newspapers to reassure investors that Hong Kong “remain[s] a safe, open, welcoming and cosmopolitan society and an internationally connected, vibrant and dynamic economy”.

But there is no “if only”. There is only the devastating, if not irreparable, carnage left behind by an incompetent, stubborn and arrogant chief executive. The damage is so deep and widespread that no one knows how long it will take for Hong Kong to bounce back again.

We are dealing with the complete breakdown of basic trust in society – in the home, in schools, on the streets and on the railway. It has made destructive, and self-destructive, behaviour so prolonged and commonplace that the city’s inhabitants have to deal with continuous disruptions to daily life, and most of us – irrespective of our politics and our positions – have been exposed to prolonged high stress levels.

It is not normal to have the police hold daily press conferences. It is not normal for any government to have screwed up this badly – in the now infamous leaked audio recording of Lam at a closed-door meeting, she admitted to causing “this huge havoc to Hong Kong [that] is unforgivable” – and not have anyone step down, or have a cabinet reshuffle.