Chief Executive Carrie Lam meets the press at the Hong Kong government headquarters in Admiralty on September 29. Photo: Nora Tam
Opinion
Opinion
by Alice Wu
Opinion
by Alice Wu
As Hong Kong prepares for a Covid-19 fourth wave, Carrie Lam’s policy address needs to have a real economic impact
The chief executive should spare Hong Kong grand visions or platitudes about the Greater Bay Area, and focus on spelling out how the government will pick up the pieces of a devastated economy
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s penultimate policy address, now due to be unveiled by the end of November, is going to be an extraordinary one: how does anyone plan and look ahead in the midst of Covid-19?
The good news for Lam is that I suspect not many of us are sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for the address, which has been overshadowed by news of the deregistration of a teacher accused by the Education Bureau of spreading independence ideas.
And, as we fight what some public health experts fear is a prelude to a fourth wave of Covid-19, the policy address is simply not generating the level of fanfare that previous ones did. Take a look at the official Facebook page set up for it and you’ll find the response rate utterly pathetic.
The pandemic has at least made managing expectations unnecessary: we do not have bucketloads of cash to throw around or the luxury of allowing leaders to wallow in grand visions – however misguided – as we did previously.
Forget all the fancy stuff. There will be a better time for it, although that time is not likely to come while Lam remains in office. But for this policy address, which should simply be titled “As if last year wasn’t bad enough”, Lam is better positioned than she was in 2019 when the city was rocked by protests.
Lam delivered last year’s policy address remotely, in a pre-recorded video, after being repeatedly heckled by lawmakers in the Legislative Council chamber. The city she leads was doused in that much anger and open hostility. That was the reality a year ago, before Covid-19 and the national security law. Any sort of live delivery on Wednesday would be a step up from last year.
03:36
Hong Kong leader forced to deliver policy address via video
Hong Kong leader forced to deliver policy address via video
Working in Lam’s favour this year is the fact that she will not be facing a new legislature, since the legislative term has been extended for at least a year. So she is, in theory, facing a less hostile audience.
Lawmakers have not been invigorated by a new election season where they traditionally need to make an impression on their debut at the policy address. And with two radicals having quit the council, Lam has two less worries. There will be theatrics, but not the sort that should faze her.
It’s perhaps a good thing that there is no pressure for Lam to deliver what hopes and dreams are made of – they are luxuries that this city simply cannot afford right now. Yet, this will to be the hardest policy address to deliver since the handover, because Lam needs to get to the nitty-gritty of how the government is prepared to pick up the pieces of a devastated economy, with one of our pillar industries – tourism – barely hanging on, livelihoods ruined and lives shattered.
Lam defended postponing the Legco elections by citing the need to focus on fighting Covid-19 and recovering from the pandemic. This is the biggest challenge of all – to ensure that government measures translate into a real impact on the ground. This is what Lam needs to deliver.
So it is vital that she keeps this policy address short and to the point. Save us all the platitudes on seizing opportunities in the Greater Bay Area or the Belt and Road Initiative – they simply don’t resonate in the here and now. Any talk of opportunities beyond our borders mean very little when travel restrictions have stopped most of us in our tracks.
And please, don’t take a trip down memory lane – we do not have the stomach for any time spent on recounting the months of political turmoil that was curbed by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Is it still possible for Lam to craft a better story for Hong Kong? For this city’s sake, I pray that she will surprise her critics.
Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA
