With the streets roiling in angry protests and the Hong Kong government flummoxed into near silence and total inertia, this may seem an inopportune time to ask for a little sympathy and understanding for embattled Chief Executive Carrie Lam, but here goes.
Let’s face it, at this hapless point, our Chief Executive – cursed and reviled on a daily basis for the past two months of anti-extradition madness – is not just a lame duck with three long years to go in her altogether discredited administration; rather, like the bill she was so keen to shove down the throats of 7.4 million Hongkongers, she is “dead” in every sense of the word except the physical.
It is not just that she has lost any shred of influence and respect among the pro-democracy camp. Pro-Beijing lawmakers and their supporters have also turned on her for shelving the extradition bill after having enlisted their full-throated support for its passage.
Moreover, the Hong Kong Police Force now deeply resents her for placing them in the dangerous and exhausting middle of a protracted political battle.
Finally, and most damningly, the Hong Kong people have written her off.
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See Also:
(1) A day after street chaos, Hong Kong protesters march in twin demonstrations
(3) What Hongkongers should know before going on strike on Monday
(5) China’s ‘greatly improved’ legal system still depends on confessions extorted by torture
