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| Chief E xecutive aspirant Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has an interview with China Daily at her c ampaign office in Hong Kong on March 10, 2017 . (Edmond Tang / China Daily) |
HONG KONG - With polling day only two weeks away, Chief Executive election candidate Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said she will work very hard to earn as many votes as possible.
This sort of trust and faith (from the central government) was built on solid foundations, rather than subjective preference or me being the only woman among the three candidates
Carrie Lam, Chief Executive election candidate
Lam said she was very grateful for the trust the central government had in her. This was due to her diligent efforts over the years as chief secretary for administration of the SAR government.
"This sort of trust and faith was built on solid foundations, rather than subjective preference or me being the only woman among the three candidates,” she told China Daily.
"As chief secretary and the No 2 official of Hong Kong SAR, I led a constitutional development task force for 20 months. They know what type of person I am and my core values,” Lam stressed.
In addition, she co-chaired a number of coordination meetings with Guangdong and Fujian officials. While she was secretary for development from 2007 to 2012, she oversaw the Hong Kong-aided reconstruction program of Wenchuan in Sichuan province following the devastating earthquake in 2008.
She said she was looking forward to the debate forum on Sunday organized by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union. This is the first one that all the three candidates will attend, a chance for voters to ask questions.
READ MORE: Criticism of Carrie Lam unfair, says Rita Fan
The two other candidates in the CE election race are ex-financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing.
Lam has secured 580 nominations from various sub-sectors of the Election Committee to qualify as an election candidate. This is only 21 votes from fulfilling the requirement of 601 votes to win the election.
She said she will continue to work very hard to win as many votes as possible. But she is unwilling to predict how many votes she will get.
Discussing whether she would win votes from “pan-democrats”, Lam said there was a chance. This was because voting takes the form of a secret ballot.
Carrie Lam also promised to form a broadly representative administration if she is elected.
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And she dismissed the negative allegation spread by opposition-leaning media outlets that she would take a hard-line governing style .
In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Lam said she did not worry about negative descriptions that she is a replica of incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying or preordained by Beijing - as claimed by the opposition camp.
"This is election and strange things happen,” she explained. “I hope that after the election, people will realize we need to work together. I have a track record of engaging Legislative Council members and politicians from the wide political spectrum to get things done for the people of Hong Kong.”
She also stressed that filibusters in the legislature were damaging. If elected, she would create a platform for dialogue with members of the Legislative Council. She hopes this will solve some of the current problems.
She revealed that from her meetings with Election Committee sub-sectors dominated by the “pan-democratic” camp, not all of them focused solely on political issues. Some expressed concern over issues related to their respective sectors.
For instance, the medical services sector, which includes clinical psychologists, nurses, dietitians and speech therapists, has complained that there are no statutory registration systems for healthcare professionals.
The CE hopeful said she would establish a statutory registration system for allied healthcare professionals if elected.
Lam also promised to recommend capable people for appointment by the central government as principal officials and Executive Council members on merit - regardless of their political backgrounds. But these people must abide by the rules of confidentiality and collective responsibility.
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| (Graphic by Carol Sin and Alex Tang/ China Daily) |
