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Hong Kong’s leader has to make decisions she doesn’t like, former finance chief John Tsang says in rare show of sympathy for Lam
Popular figure regales audiences at HKU forum with friendly jibes at former political rival and previous chief executive CY Leung, recommending they listen to Disney hit ‘Let It Go’
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Hong Kong’s former financial secretary, in a rare show of sympathy for his ex-political rival Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, has said anyone in the top job would need to enforce decisions he or she might not personally agree with.
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John Tsang Chun-wah was speaking at a University of Hong Kong forum on Thursday. He remained tight-lipped on his former colleague, to whom he lost in the city’s leadership race last year, but explained why he never made public his views on her performance.
“I do understand how much room and constraints there are within the government system, and whoever is in Lam’s position would face similar difficulties,” Tsang told a full house at the event, with 400 students and alumni in attendance.
Asked by host and his former political aide Julian Law Wing-chung whether he felt Lam had no choice but to crack down on separatism in Hong Kong, Tsang said the chief executive would have to make decisions “often not to his or her own liking” on a range of issues.
I do understand how much room and constraints there are within the government system
Pressed on whether this included the recently proposed ban on the Hong Kong National Party, Tsang said “you could say so” but did not elaborate.
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