‘Partygate’ puts spotlight on responsibilities
Our rule of law has truly soured if public officials feel they can flagrantly ignore their own public health guidance.
As much as the government would like to frame the birthday party attended by senior officials, dubbed “partygate”, as a set of individual failings, the government’s own responsibility cannot go unnoticed.
The government has consistently sent the message that the privileged get a free pass. Remember when it let JPMorgan’s CEO skip three weeks of hotel quarantine?
What about when Nicole Kidman waltzed into our city to film a TV series, or when top financial sector executives could apply to skip quarantine?
Many of Hong Kong’s sons and daughters cannot return from abroad to see their families for Lunar New Year.
While small businesses buckle under restrictions, the government has let vested interests drift through without much difficulty. What effect does that have other than emboldening the powerful to test their luck?
Fairness and the rule of law require more than an after-thefact slap on the wrist. They demand a solemn reflection of the duties of the government towards the people and an ironclad resolve not to ignore its own pronouncements.
Although the officials involved will face punishment, their audacity in violating public health guidance in the first place might send Hong Kong’s Covid-19 numbers to the stratosphere – little solace for ordinary Hongkongers who spent the past two years being prudent.
Beyond embracing their own complicity, the government must close existing loopholes and encourage conformity at the highest levels. If it wants to bludgeon the population with the world’s strictest Covid-19 restrictions, it must bludgeon everyone, rich and poor alike.
Ariq Hatibie, Tseung Kwan O