Opinion | Hong Kong’s crises could have a silver lining – reform of the Executive Council
- One reason for the government’s consistent failure to gauge public opinion is the domination of the Executive Council by members of the business elite and pro-government politicians
- A more diverse council which doesn’t see the chief executive as its boss would be more effective
Perusing the headlines of newspapers chosen at random, one might almost be led to believe that the world’s leaders are engaged in a secret contest among themselves to see who can reach the lowest depths of unpopularity in the shortest possible time. Those who call Hong Kong home would certainly insist that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor belongs at the very head of that list.
Why has the uppermost echelon of the political class consistently failed to gauge the temperature of public opinion, falling foul even of its most steadfast of supporters? With the city buckling under the weight of compounding crises, we need more attention to the root causes of our plight, which is structural and systemic.
The breathtakingly tone deaf performance of the Hong Kong government over the last year, however, has aroused widespread criticism, and given the make-up of the Executive Council, this comes as little surprise.
The Executive Council is, after all, composed of 16 “official members” and 16 “non-official members”. High-ranking officials and ministers, many of them active heads of department in the government, make up the official members.