Opinion | Chance to pin down Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on protest chaos came with few expectations – and just as few new answers

After 30 participants had their say, it was clear they were not going to get many new answers

Event was supposed to be about engaging people from all walks of life but absence of anyone from city’s ethnic minority communities was glaring

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Chief Executive Carrie Lam (centre) arrives to meet the public during a dialogue session at Queen Elizabeth Stadium. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 9:01am, 27 Sep 2019Updated: 9:02am, 27 Sep 2019

I left Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s first town-hall style dialogue session feeling pretty much the same I did on the way in – underwhelmed.

This was an opportunity for me to swap my journalist hat for that of a regular citizen of Hong Kong and take part in Lam’s first dialogue with the public in more than three months of anti-government protests.

Applications for the event opened last Thursday, and 150 people were randomly picked from more than 20,200 who signed up for a chance to demand answers from Lam.

A friend who knew I was among those selected told me that I should come up with questions that would not allow Lam to get away with old answers.

Thousands had signed up for a chance to demand answers but only 150 were picked. Photo: Dickson Lee

As I walked into the heavily guarded venue at Queen Elizabeth Stadium, the atmosphere was tense and the silence palpable because participants had no idea about the political views of the person sitting next to them – understandable, considering the recent violence between rival groups in the streets.

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