Coronavirus: how raging fifth wave exposed Hong Kong government’s ‘poor leadership’ and ‘inability to deliver’
- Criticism has rained down on government from state-backed newspapers, ex-officials, business moguls and lawyers over its slow response and handling of crisis
- Experts point to its inability to plan ahead, coordinate civil servants and departments, disseminate information and offer solutions even with help from Beijing
When the daily figure surpassed 50,000 earlier this month, even some in the pro-establishment camp had harsh words for the government’s slow response and its failure to make speedy use of help from Beijing.
Two local state-backed newspapers accused government departments of lacking coordination, saying a “bureaucratic mindset” thwarted their effectiveness.
More criticism and condemnation rained down from former officials, business moguls and senior counsel, with former government adviser Jack Wong Chack-kie urging Lam to “resign in shame”. Even former commerce minister Frederick Ma Si-hang and Ronnie Chan Chi-chung, chairman of Hang Lung Properties, both usually circumspect about government matters, weighed in.
Ma said the governing team’s handling of the fifth wave exposed “all kinds of administrative deficiencies” while Chan bemoaned a leadership that lacked humility and was full of unfounded self-confidence.
Then came news that more than half of the 16 non-official members of the Executive Council, Lam’s de facto cabinet, were planning a petition warning that unending stringent pandemic-control measures had undermined Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre.
