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Viswa Nathan

Now that a new year has dawned, let’s reflect deeply on the deeds of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor over the past year.
Many have vilified Lam for moving the infamous, since-withdrawn, extradition bill and subsequently refusing to respond to the demands of the protesters. Others have ridiculed her as insensitive, incompetent and clueless.
I, too, believed Lam was dancing to Beijing’s tune rather than serving Hong Kong. But I now begin to wonder if those conclusions weren’t too simplistic. Look at the events closely and ask again: is Lam indeed insensitive and clueless, or has she been fighting a quiet battle against the central authorities?
First, let’s recognise this was the girl who, in May 1978, at the height of student protests at Precious Blood Golden Jubilee Secondary School, marched with her fellow Hong Kong University students to Government House. More recently, as the second-in-command to her predecessor Leung Chun-ying, Lam had experience working for a communist regime.
With this experience, she must surely have weighed her decision before repeatedly saying in 2016 she was not interested in the top job. However, she was later persuaded to stand for selection, after the central government apparently decided she would be more trustworthy than other contenders, including former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah.


We must also remember that, once Lam threw her hat into the ring, she declared she would be in no rush to enact national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law. She was evidently mindful that she should not restart something that would not go down well with the public.
As chief secretary in the previous administration, Lam had borne the brunt of criticism for government policy towards the “umbrella movement” of 2014. With such experience, one would have been prepared for the possible public response to the proposed amendments to the extradition laws, which would have exposed individuals in Hong Kong to the mainland legal system.
How Carrie Lam has been hurting Hong Kong politics since 2016
So why did she do it? Is it possible that she was pushing back against pressure from Beijing to bend its way?
It’s fair to think that Lam is as dedicated to Hong Kong as the protesters are. Soon after winning the top job in 2017, she had promised Hongkongers that her priority was “to heal the divide and to ease the frustration – and to unite our society to move forward”.


It is possible that, in her brief time as chief executive, she realised that delivering on her promise was difficult because her understanding of “one country, two systems” was different from that of her superiors. In taking up the top post, she had probably acted against her conscience. Now, she can’t even seem to vacate the untenable position without her superiors’ permission.
In this situation, she could have concluded that the only way for her to deliver on her promise, or at least not betray her conscience, was to turn the people against the powers that be. Proposing that amending the existing extradition laws would also be advantageous to her masters in Beijing thus became a convenient way to turn the tables.
Hong Kong’s political crisis is also a crisis of education
Many would refuse to give Lam credit for having the wisdom to make such a strategic move. But they should know she was not inventing a new wheel; she was only imitating the master strategist and “Great Helmsman” himself, Mao Zedong.
When Mao found himself being somewhat sidelined by other leaders of the Communist Party, he mobilised schoolchildren all over the country to go after his former comrades-in-arms and called the movement the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Likewise, Lam needed only to create a situation and let it take its course.
Look at what she has achieved. Is it truly the work of a clueless person? Perhaps it is time for the protest organisers to think hard, redefine their strategy and plan actions accordingly. Happy New Year!
Viswa Nathan is the author of the just-published book, Hong Kong – The Turbulent Times. He was editor-in-chief (1974-80) of the now-defunct broadsheet morning daily, Hong Kong Standard


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Opinion


Could a chief executive so careful about national security legislation not have predicted the public response to the extradition bill? Is it possible that she was pushing back against pressure from Beijing to bend its way?



China’s Communist Party

Hong Kong Basic Law

Hong Kong extradition bill

Hong Kong protests

Leung Chun-ying (CY Leung)

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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