As Chief Executive Carrie Lam visited the site of a partial lockdown in Jordan Saturday, the controversial leader found herself on the receiving end of flattery—or not.
After giving a press conference at the Yau Tsim Mong Multicultural Activity Center, Lam and her entourage left the building and walked past a group of reporters who had gathered outside.
Amid the sounds of rapid camera shutters, a shout—first in English, then in Cantonese—could be heard among the crowd: “Carrie Lam, I love you!”
Burak Usman Mehr, who yelled the affirmation, told Coconuts on Monday that he was in the area over the weekend because he and his friend, Adeeb Khan, were volunteering as translators for the Home Affairs Department. (Yau Tsim Mong has the city’s highest population of ethnic minorities, some of whom are not fluent in Cantonese.)
“Hongkongers aren’t fond of her, so [my friend and I] thought it would be funny and new if we said ‘I love you,'” Mehr said, emphasizing that he meant it as a light-hearted, non-political joke.
Mehr, a Hindi and Urdu speaker born and raised in Hong Kong, said he had been tasked with accompanying government personnel to knock on the doors of residents in the virus-hit district to get their personal information and ask if they had taken a COVID-19 test.
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When they finished their volunteer shift and found out that Lam was going to be giving a press conference at the activity center at 4pm, Mehr said, “We took off the protective gear and blended in with the crowd.”
As Mehr yelled “I love you,” Lam spun around, seemingly startled, and gave a cursory nod in his direction.
His friend, Khan, shouted, “Let’s eat McDonald’s twister fries together!” eliciting laughter among reporters. The comment, Mehr said, was “just random.”
Mehr told Coconuts that they even contemplated bursting into a sarcastic rendition of a popular Cantonese song called “I Like You” (“喜歡你”), but that Lam “left too quickly.”
Over the weekend, Hong Kong saw its harshest COVID-19 measure since the epidemic began, prompted by a recent surge in cases in the Yau Tsim Mong. The district is home to many dilapidated buildings with cramped subdivided flats, where low-income families—many of them ethnic minorities—live.
Authorities put thousands of residents living in parts of Jordan under a partial lockdown, requiring that they take a COVID-19 test within 48 hours.
Of the 7,000 tests that were done, just 13 positive cases have been uncovered so far, leaving experts to question the effectiveness of an effort that involved the deployment of around 3,000 personnel and came at a financial cost to residents who were unable to report to work on Saturday and Sunday.
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