My Take | Leung Chun-ying was right about Hong Kong nationalism
- We are seeing the emergence of an indigenous nationalistic ideology, one that the former chief executive warned against years ago in a policy address
It’s now a universal belief that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was to blame for rushing ahead with the now truly dead extradition bill which caused our summer of unrest. Even she blames herself for failing to listen to the public.
I am not here to defend her; of course, she is responsible. But it’s probably unrealistic to think everything would have been hunky-dory if she had never tabled the bill. The seismic changes in our society run deep. There might have been delays, but widespread rebellion was probably inevitable down the road.
It’s not just housing, economic inequality or lack of social mobility. These are grievances that fuel the anger and discontent.
What we are seeing now is the emergence of an indigenous nationalistic ideology, one that Lam’s predecessor Leung Chun-ying had warned against years ago in a policy address.
He was mocked at the time for his “exaggerations”; later he was blamed for causing it because of his mismanagement, whether real or imagined.