Buffalo Springfield once sang how “There’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear. There’s a man with a gun over there, telling me I gotta beware. I think it’s time. Stop children, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”
I think it’s time. Stop children, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”
Stephen Stills wrote those chilling words in 1967 about a sound ordinance and 10pm curfew that had come into play on LA’s Sunset Strip which resulted in teenagers protesting against what they claimed were their basic civil rights.
Today, those same words have come to haunt some of us as a nervous, confused, divided, fractured, splintered Hong Kong tries to make sense of it all while the leader of the city goes into hiding like any other rat deserting a sinking ship. And Hong Kong is sinking by the minute as it looks like it will get a lot worse before we start singing “Here Comes The Sun”.
Carrying the title of Chief Executive is like Spider-Man realising that “With great power comes great responsibility,” something totally lost on an equally lost CY Leung.
As Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, this is the time for CY Leung to finally show some real leadership skills instead of making gurgling noises and going into hiding or taking that high avoidance route and thinking that holding another hollow press conference with veiled threats and tough stance posturing is effective crisis management.
What is at stake is the image and present and future of Hong Kong to the outside world- a once thriving, peaceful city made up of peaceful people suddenly looking more and more like they’re in the middle of a war zone- a city in lockdown mode and with all sides- the protesters and the police- lost and confused as to what to do next as both sides are one community- one people suddenly forced to take sides- brother against brother.
Hong Kong has very rarely faced a situation like this with neither side- those on both sides of the fences and barricades- not knowing what to do. It’s all got so out of control so quickly, Hong Kong desperately needs the leader of the city to be seen as a hero and not a Zero with dyed hair, a bad suit and a nervousness apparent to all- a nervousness that screams out, Please, my masters in Beijing, tell me what to do.
The silence from CY Leung and his equally inept cronies only adds to the sophomoric politics of various factions- different factions with vastly different agendas naively thinking they can fight city hall and win, or else send the puppet masters in Beijing a message through a sign of fractured unity in this supposed fight for more democracy. But, it’s just not working.
Those in Beijing have no time, respect and zero tolerance for a city that’s often described as “a pimple on the arse of China”.
Hong Kong and politics is an oxymoron as this city has NEVER EVER needed to depend on politics and politicians-but has now been bullied and duped to allow in showboating fakirs, shamans and opportunists to lead “the opposition” against a spineless government that has played all the wrong cards at all the wrong times.
In the midst of it all is Mr Bumbles- a Chief Executive ill-prepared for this role and who could have listened to the people, shown that he is no one’s muppet and running dog, and restored calm, confidence and unity to Hong Kong.
If it wasn’t clear before, it’s more than evident now that CY Leung is the wrong person for the position he holds.
But here’s the bigger question and greater problem: Who IS there in Hong Kong politics capable of truly leading this city?
Since 1997, we have inherited one bumbling idiot after the other, each leaving a trail of sophomoric mistakes, corruption, massive abuses of power and total incompetence which we have accepted without questioning.
CY Leung, Donald Tsang, Henry Tang, Tung Chee-wah, Rafael Hui, Regina Ip, Carrie Lam- the list is endless and the list is the same- incompetent nincompoops who, somehow, were given the power to play-act at being political leaders when they’re even more lost than those who they’re meant to lead.
What’s wrong with this picture,who painted it for us, who made us frame it and why did we accept it?
Hans Ebert Chairman and CEO We-Enhance Inc and Fast Track Global Ltd www.fasttrack.hk
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