My Take | Now may be the time to close the border
- It’s hardly the worst option and will help many Hong Kong people feel safer while enabling city chief Carrie Lam to regain some public confidence after eight months of social unrest
Thousands of public medical staff have threatened industrial action unless the government closes the border. Are they doing it out of selfishness by holding the public hostage in its hour of need? Or are they trying to save the city because its government has proved to be incompetent and inadequate?
Those against the local and central governments have been quick to rally to the medical staff. Others have denounced and condemned the medics. Eight months of civil unrest have caused people to make a habit of taking sides.
But in an emerging outbreak, people should worry less about blaming others than deciding the best course of action to take for themselves, their families and society as a whole. Will closing the border help or hinder the spread of the disease into the community?
Many countries are closing their borders even though they are far away; Hong Kong is at the southern fringe of mainland China.
Officials up to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said closing the border to mainlanders would be discriminatory and unnecessary. The World Health Organisation has not recommended it and even during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak, the border stayed open.
Bureaucrats always want clear evidence to make the decision for them, but real leaders must decide, right or wrong, under tremendous uncertainty. There are no “nice” ways to fight an epidemic. Quarantines are the ultimate “discriminatory” measure, but often the only method that works.