Chee Yik-wai

Opinion | Covid-19 and climate crises have sparked an outcry for social justice. Will leaders take heed?

The lack of effective leadership to deal with the pandemic and global warming has irreversibly changed how most people view politics and business – witness America’s ‘Great Resignation’ and China’s ‘lying flat’ movement

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Why you can trust SCMP

Pro-democracy protesters face a line of riot police at a protest calling for Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to resign over the government’s handling of Covid-19, in Bangkok on August 11. Worldwide, many feel a greater sense of scepticism and discontent towards the establishment. Photo: AFP

Chee Yik-wai

Published: 1:30am, 22 Jan 2022Updated: 2:33am, 22 Jan 2022

With the world suffering from Covid-19 containment fatigue, the star-studded Netflix comedy Don’t Look Up provides a satirical and relatable reality. The film cleverly draws attention to our climate emergency, shaming leaders for failing to respond appropriately.

A parallel can be drawn to the world’s collective failure in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. An important takeaway is that the absence of leadership and social justice is a guaranteed path to destruction.

A lack of decisive pandemic leadership has cost more than 5.5 million lives. The number will almost certainly increase with the World Health Organization prediction that more than half of Europe’s population will be infected with Omicron, the latest Covid-19 variant, by March.

Similarly, climate-change-related deaths are estimated to top 150,000 annually, according to the WHO. Poor leadership has played a massive role, and a lack of prioritisation of social justice – the fair distribution of wealth, opportunities and privileges – has fanned the divisions that obstruct the resolution of these grave challenges.

Many people living in democratic systems with leadership elections every few years may believe that bad leaders are the staple in authoritarian systems. But we may have jumped to that conclusion too quickly; the reality is that both systems can greatly disappoint if we do not have the right leaders, which is often the case.

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‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ explained

Many democratic leaders prioritise elections and succumb to divisive tactics even at the expense of social justice. Electing leaders through a popularity contest when they may have no understanding of how to manage multilevel stakeholder relationships or, fatally, show a lack respect for science, is nothing short of a disaster.