Hong Weimin's birthday party｜It is a kind of corruption to rule Hong Kong by "giving a fluke"

Politicians need to be in awe rather than fluke—this is the most basic political literacy, but it is very lacking in the Hong Kong team.

The fifth wave of the epidemic brought about by the Omicron variant virus is poised to unfold. As the city is tremblingly on alert, at least 14 senior officials and 20 officials, including Director of the Civil Affairs Bureau Xu Yingwei, Director of Police Xiao Zeyi, and ICAC Commissioner Bai Yunliu, etc. Members of the Legislative Council, but failed to comply with the Special Administrative Region Government’s call to "avoid attending parties without masks", attended the Hundred People's Birthday Party of Hong Weimin, deputy to the Hong Kong People's Congress, on Monday (January 3).

The incident caused an uproar in the society, and it is really puzzling—how much do these Hong Kong rulers lack the awareness of governance so that they have no reverence for their power and mission, and are lucky to the looming epidemic?

The fifth wave of the epidemic was poised for the outbreak, but 14 officials including the Director of the Home Affairs Bureau Xu Yingwei did not abide by the government's call. Instead, they attended the Hundred People's Birthday Party of the Hong Weimin National People's Congress in Hong Kong.

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"We remind all government colleagues once again that Omicron has entered the community and the current epidemic is severe. Yesterday I described it as an imminent situation. Civil servants or other politically appointed officials must strictly observe discipline and avoid these gatherings so as not to bring damage to the health protection center. A lot of work.” Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor last night (January 6) when explaining the ins and outs of more than 10 high-ranking officials attending the Hundred People Party, he repeatedly reminded all officials to be self-disciplined.

However, it is this attitude that believes too much in self-discipline that has prompted the authorities to fail to plug the loopholes in the arrival quarantine, causing the Cathay Pacific flight crew with the Omicron variant virus to cause an outbreak in the community; it is precisely these policies that rely too much on self-discipline. It will give rise to the "Hong Weimin's Birthday Party" event that humiliated Hong Kong and tarnished the central government.

For Hong Kong elites, the prerequisite for "self-discipline" must be that they have sufficient awareness of governance-that is, they fully understand that they are the primary responsible subject of "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong", they are given the power of "a high degree of autonomy", and they also shoulder " The mission of “Supreme” will naturally be in awe of this power and mission-to fear the people who are empowered and empowered, always based on the interests of the people, follow the rules, walk on thin ice, fear the things that burden the people’s trust; engage in awe Responsibilities of public office, active devotion and dedication, always treat people's affairs as their own, and fear mediocrity and lazy governance.

It is a pity that many elites in governing Hong Kong not only have no awe, but are lucky.

Taking the new crown epidemic as an example, overly loose entry quarantine measures have led to multiple community outbreaks, and have also led the mainland authorities to question the effectiveness of Hong Kong’s prevention and control, and have been reluctant to open the quarantine-free entry policy. Behind every "relaxed" policy, They are all inseparable from the fluke psychology and management thinking of "greed for convenience", "saving trouble", "partial business", and "bo-bo-bo"-for example, until the third wave broke out, the SAR government still did not require strict control of the epidemic People arriving in Hong Kong from overseas areas are quarantined, and even seafarers and crew members are allowed to exempt from virus testing and freely enter and leave the community. Also, the emergence of the fifth wave of the epidemic is due to the fact that the authorities are willing to bet on the seriousness of the epidemic in order to facilitate the operation of airlines. Crew members are exempted from the “compulsory” and “closed-loop” centralized quarantine, allowing them to self-discipline and quarantine at home. As a result, some people violate the rules and exceptions eat together, and some people infect their family members, and community transmission is out of control. .

The same goes for the "Hong Weimin Birthday Party" event.

It is undeniable that the "face party" is indeed Hong Kong’s characteristic political, business and social culture, and Hong Weimin, as a representative of the Hong Kong National People’s Congress, is also a well-connected liaison officer for the management of Hong Kong affairs in Qianhai, and he is also a part of the selection of Hong Kong governors. One of the members of the Election Committee, it was natural that more than a hundred people congratulated him on his birthday party; besides, the government did not tighten social distancing at the time, and admission regulations followed the legal procedures-but the problem was that on the day of his birthday party, There have been signs of an outbreak in the Mochizuki group in One City. The Director of the Food and Health Bureau, Chen Zhaoshi, also publicly persuaded the public to avoid social gatherings without masks. The atmosphere became even more tense and there was a rumor that the Hong Kong government would completely block the gate and ban night market halls. However, he still insisted on holding a birthday party with risk of spreading, and the 14 senior officials and 20 legislators also openly ignored the appeal of the authorities and seized the party.

Let me ask, if these people who govern Hong Kong are in awe of their own power and mission, how can they put their personal social needs above the security interests of the society as a whole, and how can they regard social activities as their work priorities?

On the contrary, if it weren't for these people who govern Hong Kong to have a fluke mentality of "no chance" and "no black boy", how could they not see the seriousness of committing crimes against the wind?

Sadly, after the incident was revealed, many rulers of Hong Kong still realized it later, and even tried to interpret the picture for the party members involved, but they were guilty of their shortcomings.

For example, Ye Guoqian, the veteran of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong who is a "party member" of Xu Yingwei and a member of the Executive Council, believes that the other party does not need to "step down" and be held accountable because officials in other private places are also at risk of infection, and if he is invited, he will also attend the party— -It can be seen that he still does not realize that public officials must lead by example; another example is Lu Songxiong, a member of the Legislative Council of the Federation of Trade Unions, who emphasized that society should not spend time investigating party incidents and neglect to plug the loopholes in epidemic prevention-reflecting that he still does not understand that public officials must guard the bottom line .

What's even more pitiful is that in addition to the epidemic, this mental outlook of "having luck" instead of "holding awe" can also be seen in the poor governance of the entire Hong Kong governance team, which is simply "corrupt" in a certain sense. , Resulting in the failure of public power to play its full role.

Take the "Special Administrative Region Government" as an example. It is in an absolute dominant position in the governance system of Hong Kong. It is responsible for formulating and promoting social development plans, promoting and supervising the effective operation of the market, establishing a fair and reasonable distribution mechanism, and providing land-based and high-quality The government’s public service, maintaining a peaceful and stable social order; however, looking at the governance practices of the 25 years since its return, the authorities always make people question that it has forgotten its job, and sometimes it doesn’t even look like a “government” at all.

When the "free market economy" almost failed, it always rationalized class antagonism and the gap between the rich and the poor on the grounds of the "capitalist system." Mistaking economic issues as political issues and failing to resolve various contradictions through effective governance. Obviously possessing the wealth of an enemy country and the power of administrative leadership, it is always obstructed by the bureaucratic system of the backward era and self-proclaimed, and even fell from the master of the system. Become a servant of the system; he is clearly Hong Kong’s "super-large landlord" who has the absolute right to speak in land development, and he should also assume a fair and reasonable allocation of resources, but he always allows the "capital" behind the "market" to take over. The unfair treatment suffered by the general public turned a blind eye.

Because of this, deep-seated structural contradictions will accumulate, and the decline in social development will be irreversible.

As we all know, as early as 2002, the then Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa introduced the "Principal Official Accountability System" commonly known as the "Senior Official Accountability System" in order to strengthen the responsibilities and commitments of politically appointed officials in the governance of the SAR. To a certain extent, the heart of awe is promoted while reducing the fluke mentality.

However, although the system states that key officials need to step down due to major policy mistakes or personal integrity issues, in the past 19 years, only 4 senior officials have voluntarily resigned due to alleged mistakes, and they have been useless since 2012—not that there are no officials who need to ask questions. Responsibility, but no official takes the initiative to take responsibility.

The reason why Hong Kong’s accountability culture has not become a climate is that the political accountability lacks clear institutional ethics and specific accountability traditions, which has led to two misunderstandings in the general public’s perception of "accountability"-that accountability is equivalent to accountability. ; Think that stepping down is the inevitable and only result of accountability.

In fact, the original intention of the accountability system is to require politically appointed officials to formulate, explain and promote policies to win the support of the Legislative Council and the public, and to take responsibility for mistakes. It can be said that the focus of the system is to "take responsibility", that is, to find out The nature of the problem, lessons learned, and improvements, and "stepping down" is just a statement or the beginning of "responsibility," not to create the illusion that "the problem is solved on the surface" in order to seal the end of the leisurely mouth.

By the way, people are always used to make the only link between "accountability" and "resignation", which only makes people habitually shout for substitutions, instead of exploring the real solution to the problem; over time, the society's awareness of accountability has also increased. More vague, or even deviating from the spirit of accountability-not only is it difficult to cultivate a sense of awe, but it is distorted into an act of avoiding responsibility or lying down, making repeated mistakes but still "like being in no one's land", just like the SAR government. , Rarely admits governance mistakes-it is hard not to doubt that it does not know where it is wrong, let alone take responsibility for any mistakes.

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