Opinion | Admissions of past failings a good sign for Hong Kong’s future

Hong Kong’s failure to contain the pandemic revealed a government tied up in its own red tape, unable to make the right decisions and mobilise resources

Reforming governance will be a challenge for the next chief executive, and ‘result-oriented’ John Lee could perhaps start with the simple stuff

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Chief executive candidate John Lee visits an NGO in Jordan as part of his campaign outreach efforts on April 24. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 6:45am, 2 May 2022

Rapid antigen tests are so much a part of our everyday lives now it’s hard to believe it was only two months ago that health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee single-handedly caused panic across Hong Kong by mentioning the possibility of a lockdown without offering a timeline or explanation on how it would proceed.

At the time, Hongkongers were already stockpiling over-the-counter medication because the public health system had been so overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients that they had to wait outside hospitals in makeshift tents.

Many patients nursed themselves back to health at home. Supply disruptions caused food prices to rocket. People literally had to worry about putting food on the table.

Today, the government is finally ready to own up to its mistakes. Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen admitted there were “gaps and delays” in the government’s anti-pandemic efforts, and that “this time lag had direct consequences and caused inconvenience to the public”. This should be music to our ears; the current administration had been tone-deaf for too long.

Most important is the vow to take stock of these failings. Nip said reviews must be conducted on how mechanisms and procedures could be enhanced.

It wasn’t very long ago that this city prided itself on its “first class”, professional and highly efficient civil service. But when Dr Liang Wannian, head of the Covid Response Expert Team of the National Health Commission, was in the city to lend a hand to our struggle during the fifth wave, he found a lack of synergy.

Our government is shackled by its procedures and mechanisms, its hands tied by its own red tape. The outcome is an inefficient and ineffective Leviathan that couldn’t even identify what the public needed, let alone know how to deliver these services.

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