Opinion | Never mind people’s ‘fading tolerance’, what about the lack of trust in government, Mrs Lam?
- Confidence in the administration, already at a low when Covid-19 hit, has been further shaken by months of rising cases, tough restrictions and policy U-turns
- Lam has finally recognised that public patience is ebbing, but in promising to help the city’s finance sector, she risks once again isolating the rest of us
Look, it’s great that Lam feels she can put herself out there like that – talking about feelings and displaying empathy of sorts. But, at this stage, shouldn’t we be more accurate about what is fading, if it hasn’t already gone?
Fading tolerance seems much too negligible. It isn’t merely collective annoyance over swatting a fly that just won’t go away. The community, as well as leaders in Beijing, have a rude awakening for the government over its unpreparedness, incapability, and the bureaucratic fat that outweighed its primary job to protect the lives of its people.
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No respite for Covid cases in Hong Kong as infections surge in mainland China
If anyone has strong feelings, it is the people, and they are: persistent anxiety over a prolonged period of uncertainty and heightened vigilance; exasperation over the futility of measures – however stringent – and the moving goalposts in the name of controlling a communicable disease; helplessness over losing all sense of normalcy, means to live, and both physical and mental health; and, hopelessness. In a nutshell: people have been robbed of any sense of their future.
But, for Hong Kong, what the chief executive and her team need to truly recognise and feel strongly about is people’s lack of trust in the government.