Читать книгу Rebel City - South China Morning Post Team - Страница 17

A source close to the administration said Lam missed the opportunity to stem the crisis when she dismissed advice to withdraw the bill after the second mass protest, and to ask the police chief to stop referring to the June 12 protest as a riot.

It took almost three months more before Lam finally announced on September 4 that the bill would be withdrawn, a move which sources said required the approval of President Xi Jinping.

Behind the scenes, Lam appeared to distance herself from Beijing, hinting that she had limited power and that her hands were tied. In a leaked transcript of a private gathering held in August, Lam said she had little choice, given that the massive backlash against the bill had elevated the issue to a national level problem, and “a sort of sovereignty and security level” matter. Once that happened, the “political room for maneuvering is very, very, very limited,” she was recorded as saying to a group of business leaders.

Lam rejected speculation that she herself, or someone from the administration, had deliberately leaked the recording in order to shift the blame to Beijing. She was also reported to have said at the same gathering that she would have quit if she had the choice. But again Lam denied saying so. “I have not given myself the choice of taking an easier path, and that is, to leave,” she said in a statement after the leaked recording emerged.

Lawmaker Ip revealed that, at one point, she and other Exco members had considered resigning en masse, but Lam had stopped them. “The chief executive said we were on the periphery, merely giving advice, meaning if anyone had to be held accountable, Exco members would not be the first,” Ip said. Political scientist Ma Ngok, of Chinese University, said: “In other countries, the leader and officials would have stepped down if such a large number marched on the streets.”

Two sources close to the government said Lam’s troubled tenure exposed the weakness of a leader lacking global political exposure and the experience of elections. “During most of her career, Lam was a bureaucrat tackling domestic issues,” said one. “If she could have understood the political headwinds of the US-China tensions and seen how the bill could get entangled in that, she would have thought twice from day one.” The other said: “Lam and the absolute majority of ministers are former civil servants who lack experience in elections. That’s why they underestimate negative public sentiments.”