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Opinion | Can John Lee learn from Carrie Lam’s mistakes and rebuild public trust?
- Lee is obviously keen to start a new chapter, but there are many pages he can borrow from his former boss’ book
- Rebuilding trust, taking public opinion seriously and connecting with the people would be a good start
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Why you can trust SCMP
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There is much talk on the political circuit in Hong Kong about who will lose their place and who will join chief executive-elect John Lee Ka-chiu’s ruling team come July 1. It is rumoured that a number of legislators have been recruited to join the other side of the aisle, answering lawmakers’ questions in their new role as government officials.
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That seems like a natural career progression. Their political position – being pro-establishment – will remain intact. They will just transition from being proactively supportive of the establishment to making decisions and executing them as the establishment.
It really seems like pageantry. But this isn’t a race, or a time to be showy – there’s a lot of serious work to be done with just weeks to go until the new administration takes over.
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Lee played an integral part in his predecessor’s decidedly “hot” kitchen. As chief secretary, he was Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s sous chef before he resigned to contest the leadership election.
Lam had plans to renovate the kitchen and make it bigger, and Lee supported her. In fact, he is so supportive of the idea that he is ready to triple the original price tag so the kitchen can accommodate three additional deputy secretaries on top of two new bureaus. That means 13 more political appointees and 57 civil service posts.
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