30,000 Deserters Hoard Resources & Dodge Epidemic

(10 Feb) The Hong Kong Police Force has become a privileged class, looking down on and taking advantage of Hong Kongers. Despite the #CoronavirusOutbreak, citizens commemorated the death of CHOW Tsz-Loklast Saturday. But the police responded with all sorts of violence against the citizens, including district councillors and their chairman, and arrested 60 people. In Sai Kung, residents who protested against the quarantine centre were beaten with blood over their heads. While Carrie LAM and 30,000 police were busy “curbing violence” and “dispelling rumours,” citizens struggled to buy maskseverywhere in Hong Kong. Many elderlies criedbecause they could not get one.

If visitors arriving from the coronavirus epicentre, Hubei province, have brought the virus to Hong Kong, then, according to Professor YUEN Kwok-Yung, up to 1.4 million Hong Kongers will be infected, translating to a death toll up to 21,000 at a fatality rate of 1.5%. The number is 70 times of that of the 2003 SARS outbreak.

I want to ask Carrie Lam and Chris TANG Ping-keung on behalf of all Hong Kong citizens, “which is more threatening to the city’s stability and prosperity, a peaceful memorial event of Chow or an outbreak caused by a virus-spreader?” We are not talking about politics but common sense when we are facing the novel coronavirus. It is no secret that we must unite to fight against the virus and that people coming from the mainland are the carriers. The Police Force should have started the quarantine operation long ago tosort out, stop, expel or compel the suspected case into quarantinelike what Macau has been doing. But no one is doing any of those things in Hong Kong. The government even liedthat they did not have the number of visitors coming from Hubei, and commanded the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to casually inspect some hotels to make a show.

A complete shutdown of borders is unrealistic as the Central Government will never allow that. It needs to keep a loophole for the privileged class and officials to escape. We cannot blame this part on the police. But we only have the “14-day compulsory quarantine” arrangement, which is no different than having no policy at all, as it relies on the discipline of those under quarantine. Recruiting retired civil servants and boy scouts to manage the camps is even more ridiculous. How can they handle the increasing number of people? And what can they do if someone escapes from the quarantine centre? I thought I was watching a comedy. Why are the police with law enforcement power shrugging off their responsibilities? 

Obviously, the failure of controlling the coronavirus lies on the well-equipped police force. Because of their noncooperation, the supposedly compulsory quarantine has become a “self-compelled” quarantine. The borders remain open to everyone. The potential virus carriers are walking around the cities and spreading the disease. Many are admitted to the resorts or staying at hotels and homes without any police monitoring.

Carrie Lam gives extensive benefits to her remaining 30,000 supportersas they can get adequate masks, with enough to share with their friends and family. But the medical staff needed to wait in long lines for buying masksin Kwong Wah Hospital during lunch hour. There is no point for the government giving out masks freely to police when they are not standing at the frontier to fight against the epidemic. Why does it not ration the two masks per day for each officer like the medical staff working in the high-risk area?

The government has been refusing to be upfront with the public on the whereabout of CSI masks because it knows the truth will ignite people’s wrath yet again. The Hospital Authority has never used any of the CSI masks.The Government Logistics Department can easily track which department has taken up most of the stock. If the 30,000 police officers were taking 150 masks per day per person, it will consume 4.5 million of masks in a week.

The above calculation has not even included the stock piled up by the senior officials like Mathew CHEUNG Kin-chung.

Back in 2003, the public was upset when former Health Minister YEOH Eng-Kiong and Head of Department of Health Margaret CHAN Fung Fu-chun delayed actions to curb SARS. But the medical staff, disciplinary forces, and civil servants maintained high morale and united to fight the epidemic. 17 years later, the incompetent government lacking the power of governance ignored public interests again.It just cares about the “face” of the #CCP regime and the privileged class. It follows the Central Government’s agenda by smearing the medical staff despite the potential cost of sacrificing citizens lives. The HKSAR Government is likely preparing to receive massive assistance from Beijing. And, 10 years later, regardless of the number of deaths, the textbooks will praise Hong Kong for triumphing over COVID-19 with Central Government’s assistance.

We the Hong Kongers, must bear in mind that, deserters from the fight against the coronavirus are Carrie Lam’s administration and the Hong Kong Police Force who hold grudge against Hong Kongers. They refused to close the borders, to execute compulsory quarantine, to station at quarantine camps, and to hoard scarce medical resources.

Source: Apple Daily 

https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20200210/20859477