A birthday party exposes the lack of awareness of Hong Kong officials

The Omicron variant of the new crown virus hit Hong Kong. The government held a press conference on New Year's Eve (31st) last year. In the background, the slogan "The whole city is fighting the epidemic, one heart is one heart."

A few days later, the government even tightened social restrictions.

The words are still in my ears, but someone was tested positive initially and attended a large birthday party this Monday (3rd). There were more than ten senior officials who attended the meeting. As a result, they all had to be quarantined.

In the eyes of the citizens, they are lenient and strict, and there is no sense of "alignment" among officials. The so-called "one mind" is empty talk.

Although most of the accountability team members and the head of the disciplined forces stayed for a short time, the Secretary of Civil Affairs Xu Yingwei stayed on the table and had a meal, and the Director of Immigration, Ou Jiahong, was suspected of not using "Travel with peace of mind."

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor criticized many people for their efforts to help fight the epidemic at a press conference on Thursday (6th). Government personnel should lead by example and avoid attending high-risk gatherings as much as possible.

Don't allow non-governmental gatherings but allow officials to banquets?

In fact, it is not only Lam Cheng who is disappointed with officials, but also the citizens of Hong Kong.

Official attendance at private banquets should have been avoided or avoided, so as not to be suspected of being close to business and other sectors.

They attended the meeting when the epidemic became more serious. Some people were suspected of not using the "Travel with Peace" program to record their whereabouts. They set a bad example and made it difficult to convince the public to follow the various epidemic prevention guidelines.

Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said at the press conference that she was particularly disappointed at the birthday party by the Secretary for Home Affairs Xu Yingwei.

(Photo by Liao Yanxiong)

At the beginning of 2020, President Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, mentioned at the 19th Politburo Standing Committee meeting that governments at all levels "have to strengthen the "four consciousnesses" under the serious situation of the accelerated spread of the virus... Prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic caused by coronavirus”, these “four consciousnesses” include “awareness of alignment” and “awareness of the overall situation”, that is, consciously maintaining a high degree of consistency with the central government in terms of thinking, politics, and actions, and judging from the overall situation. Issues and resolute implementation of the central decision and deployment to ensure the smooth flow of central government orders.

Obviously, the birthday party incident just revealed that some officials lacked "awareness of keeping up with each other" in preventing and fighting the epidemic, and they did not urge each other, and their pace was out of step with the authorities' public practices.

At the same time, they obviously do not have the “big picture awareness” that can think about the macro situation, and they have not taken the lead in restraining social activities to help the society get rid of the epidemic as soon as possible. Now the banquet guests are initially diagnosed, causing the Health Protection Center to spend extra manpower to track down whether officials have been infected. And infect others, the objective effect is to increase the government's workload and hinder the overall anti-epidemic process.

The Director of Food and Health, Chen Zhaoshi, reminded the public to pay attention to epidemic prevention at a press conference at the end of last year: "You have to remove the cover when you noticed that there are people in the shadows. If you pray for a thousand prayers, you must wear a cover!" (Photo by Liang Pengwei)

How to Lead the Citizens Without the Consciousness of Alignment

Moreover, it is not unique to Hong Kong society to require officials to reduce social activities during the epidemic. The same applies to the mainland and other places.

In the mainland, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, and other places have had judicial personnel who were dismissed and warned for holding gatherings in violation of regulations.

British Prime Minister Johnson was kicked out for participating in a staff indoor party in December of the previous year. He was accused of violating the lockdown order at the time. The opposition Labor Party and the public criticized Johnson's double standards and demanded his resignation. His former subordinate and Minister of Health Xia Guoxian also Stepped down because of violation of social distancing regulations.

This shows that Hong Kong government officials should have been wary of private participation in gatherings.

The prevention of imports from outside the government led to the spread of the Omicron virus in the community. As a result, it was necessary to ban dine-in at night and close places to control the epidemic. The society was full of grievances about this, and the incident of officials attending birthday meetings has severely undermined the overall management of individuals and the government. Governing prestige.

Lin Zheng claimed that appropriate actions would be taken, but did not disclose specific details.

On the one hand, the authorities must thoroughly investigate whether any guests in the banquet violated the epidemic prevention regulations, and those who violated the epidemic should be punished in accordance with the law to prove that the epidemic prevention is treated equally; on the other hand, the government must re-examine the historical discipline and ethics of the accountability team and disciplinary forces. , Make sure that senior officials always remember that the law man must first discipline himself.

The anti-epidemic is highly important to the leadership of officials. The main premise is to have a sense of alignment and overall situation and not to leave the team.

Epidemic prevention needs to be "relentless" and severe penalties should be imposed on those who violate regulations and laws, and understand that sharing the same boat can effectively fight the spread of asymptomatic cases of the epidemic. The risk of transmission should not be underestimated.