Opinion | Coronavirus: in the absence of Singapore-style leadership, Hongkongers are rediscovering their can-do spirit
- Not only does Hong Kong’s leader lack the credibility to begin a television address with ‘my fellow Hongkongers’, the government’s inadequate handling of the crisis has pushed the city’s residents to draw on their own resources
What does it mean to be a Hongkonger? Do we even know who we are? I bet none of us can give an honest answer free of political spin. Both questions tugged at me after I rewatched Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s televised address to his nation last month.
When I first watched the speech, I wondered how a leader of a country with a multiparty system in name only could have such a calming hold on the people that they listened to him and followed his advice. Lee began by saying, “my fellow Singaporeans”. Towards the end, after crediting the people for the country’s unity, he said, “This is what it means to be Singaporean. This is who we are.”
Would our own leader dare begin an address at a time of crisis by saying “my fellow Hongkongers” and end it with “This is what it means to be a Hongkonger. This is who we are”? I can’t imagine Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor doing that. Even if she did, I don’t even want to think about the derision she would draw.
Singaporeans know who they are. Lee has the leadership qualities to state what it means to be Singaporean. In his second nationally televised speech last week, to rally the people against the coronavirus epidemic, he said, “We are Singapore united.” If only Lam had the credibility to say that about Hong Kong.
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