CE's Achievement Remarks Shameless: Academic

A policy expert has called the Chief Executive "arrogant" and "shameless" for claiming that she has already achieved or even outperformed the promises she made in her election manifesto three years ago.

During an interview with Hong Kong Open TV aired Thursday night, Carrie Lam said her administration has done a lot to improve social welfare.

What she did not touch on, however, were her pledges to "heal the social divide" and unite society.

Director of the Comparative Governance and Policy Research Centre at the Baptist University, Kenneth Chan, said it was unbelievable for Lam to make a comment like this, saying Hong Kong has fared much worse under her leadership.

“I think she’s really arrogant and she has no shame. Look at the mess she has made for Hong Kong people. Look at the economy, look at the pandemic, look at the social protests… all of her own making”, he said.

Chan added that it was also “not surprising” for the CE to say that she would address political problems in her upcoming Policy Address because Lam simply has no political power to do anything else.

“By elimination, what else could she do but to be the most loyal servant to Beijing?”, he questioned.

“I think her hands are totally tied. The economy is bad. She is already drawing money from all the reserves available just to survive… she has no legitimacy or mandate to do the right thing."

"Everybody is now looking to her as a piggy bank and asking for help, relief, payouts and so forth just to weather the storm. And this storm, of course, has a lot to do with her own government’s incompetence”, Chan added.

The politics academic also slammed the SAR leader for playing the blame game by accusing the opposition camp of blocking the passage of livelihood-related policies, saying Lam only has herself to blame for the current impasse.