Opinion | British colonial officials fought hard for Hong Kong and its people, so why can’t Carrie Lam?
- Kevin Rafferty says the chief executive has failed Hong Kong by clamping down on talk of independence and self-determination. And if the latest ban on Victor Mallet was ordered by Beijing, it calls into question Hong Kong’s future
The response, if any, of Hong Kong’s chief executive, is not recorded. If she really understood her job as leader of Hong Kong, she would have dared suggest to Xi that Hong Kong’s continuing contribution to the motherland is best made by being different from mainland China, as an international window on the outside world, an intermediary between freewheeling global capitalism and the restraints of China. In plainer language, Lam should have the guts to stand up for Hong Kong and its people. Regrettably, she shows no sign of doing so.
This bogus claim about dark forces fomenting independence for Hong Kong, perhaps led by the former British colonialists, should have been nailed long ago. My reporting from London and Hong Kong in the early 1970s was that Whitehall civil servants were anxious to get rid of Hong Kong, but they recognised that independence was never an option and were waiting on China’s decision.
Self-determination means we want our own shout on the way we are ruled. Within the restrictions and promises of the Basic Law – within the restriction that there can be no independence – it is perfectly possible, even advisable in a sophisticated territory like Hong Kong, for citizens to be given the important say on how they are governed, how the chief executive and legislature members are chosen.
