Enough is enough

In my last post omicron oh my god 2 in last Thursday I said when Beijing expressed its concern on Hong Kong's plague situation and said it would extend its assistance, that is actually a signal to Carrie Lam's administration saying Beijing is not happy on the then latest development in Hong Kong. Beijing would not stand sideline and let Lam and her bunch of incapable bureaucrats further jeopardize Hong Kong's well-being.  Today there came a news which explicitly mentioned that the President of State cum General Scretary of the CCP, Xi, laid an instruction that the HKSAR government must do by all means to suppress the plague and make sure Hong Kong returns to the right track. This news came in time just one day right after yesterday's verified infection cases rose to 5400+. Apparently Beijing is keeping a very close eye on the development and react promptly.

Lam and her bunch of related incapable bureaucrats are in hot soup now. An direct instruction from the State President is an absolute order which must be complied and failure is not an option. Having said, thing is not optimistic to Lam because with the existing measure there is literally no hope to turn the situation around in short time, or at least in a month or so considering the plague is in its full boom stage. Thing will just be worse but not the otherwise. 

It was said prior to this outbreak Lam was eagerly seeking the second term of her capacity of Chief Executive but judging what is happening now she literally will have no luck to run the election any more. There is a Chinese wisdom of word saying fortune and misfortune are twin and they inter-dependent with each other respectively (福兮禍所依，禍兮福所倚).  Lam have made a big mess in Hong Kong during the anti-extradition bill three years ago and when the judgment day was about to come then there came the plague in Wuhan, China and finally spreaded to Hong Kong in early 2020. Beijing kept Lam for the sake of stability in fighting the plague so it is the plague that saved Lam. Unfortunately it is the same plague which is very likely to put an end on her political future two years later. She just ran out any more of her luck.

In fact it is not about luck but Lam's character. Her character dictates her decisions which in turns led to the outcome of her doings. Lam was once characterized as very fighting when she was still the Secretary in the Development Bureau. It is her such personality that shapes her to be what she is today. Lam is self-confident and high in pride on what she does. There are pros and cons though. The price could be very high when she misjudges the circumstances because of her persistence. In the 2019 anti-extradition bill event Lam created a huge societal chao due to her persistence on the non-withdrawal of the proposed bill. In this plague she insists not wearing a face mask in the press conference appearance. She sees this as the standing up of her doings and pegged with her pride. This gives her a way of no return.

Whether to wear a face mask in press conference seems to be a minor issue but in fact it reflects Lam's mentality. She insists she take testings frequently and wore mask in all occassions so the likelihood to infect others or got infected is slim. It may be true but she neglects the psychological impact to the public on the stringent adherence to the anti-plague measures set up by her administration. People might follow to relax on the adherence to the measures as long as they think they are confident. Lam just set a very bad model to undermine the effort of the frontline personnel. The impact is far from the outcome from those press conferences.

Lam's pride also led her to wrong decisions. She believes in what she does and thinks they are all right but are they? Amid this recent spike Lam said her administration has ordered a hundred million of self testing kits and she thinks it is an effective measure to spot those hidden infected. Lam truly believes so and literally rests a big hope on the kick off. Unfortunately her persistence and pride will definitely give her another big blow on top of the other failure of her measures. Let alone whether all recipient can correctly administer the testing so an accurate result is viable but just image for people whose livelihood will be impacted if they are verified positive then will they honestly report to the authority so that they might lose their jobs? For many grassroot their wages count on their daily working and a no work day means a no pay day. This is reality and human nature but Lam overlooks it.

Apart from the many highly blamed operational flaws in different functions in the anti-plague measures, the key point lies on Lam's adminstration's lack of foresight and the corresponding contingence plan. In the past two years the HKSAR government has only been facing the development of the plague with reactive approach. Things were marginally manageable because of the relative smaller scale in the past but the table turned when Omicron mutant strikes in the beginning of this year. Yet Lam's administration still takes chance hoping things will be alright by luck but did not take a pre-emptive approach to prevent the worse scenario from happening.

The Omicron mutant emerged in the end of last year in S. Africa and before long it was classified as a highly contagious variance. Therefore it is not whether or not but just when this mutant will strike Hong Kong. This was a known high probability event. On the other hand, it is also a well in advance known high probability event that the existing facilities will largely fall short to demand when Omicron strikes Hong Kong judging from the high contagiousness. Yet from what have been done by the Lam's administration amid the spike in the past two weeks literally nothing has been planned and no preparation whatsoever was done to address what is happening now. Simply speaking there is no contingence plan at all. In fact the latest existing stringent measures came only fews days ago after there were 600+ case a day in straight three days when the Lam's administration woke up suddenly! This is a total failure being a government.

Enough is enough!