Blowing Water | Carrie Lam’s clumsy parenting analogy was designed to take sting out of extradition bill protests, but only burns relations with Hong Kong mothers
- The city leader presenting herself as a mothering figure for Hongkongers, when police used rubber bullets and tear gas on mainly young protesters, demonstrates how Lam’s attempts to defuse crisis have backfired
A mother’s instinct is to protect her child, no matter what, and this selfless impulse was on full display by fierce Hong Kong mothers during the past few days of protest against the contentious extradition bill.
The string of impassioned protests have been triggered by the Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, when she likened her relationship with the protesters to that of a mother and her child.
In a recent television interview, Lam said that if she gives in to every demand from her son, he would be spoiled, end up regretting getting everything he wanted, and he would blame her for not teaching him how to distinguish right from wrong.
In not so cryptic fashion, Lam effectively said that she had no intention of backing down and withdrawing the extradition bill, which the government said was aimed at plugging a legal loophole to prevent the city from being turned into a haven for criminal suspects.
In response to Lam’s poorly directed comments, a group of mothers, including lawyers and academics, banded together to form “Hong Kong Mothers”. Not long after that, thousands more mothers joined them in an act of open defiance.
