Though one could make the case that it’s the same elsewhere, especially in the pandemic. In the US it’s known as “keeping on message”. In the UK as “cabinet solidarity”.
And it’s true that to govern you have to be able to have internal discussions, debates, disagreements, then come to a decision which you communicate with one voice.
Yet as the revelations of former British chancellor, Rishi Sunak reveal about internal debates, keeping them hushed can damage to the greater good. In Britain the “experts” were urging longer, harder, swifter lockdowns while the politicians were not so keen. In Hong Kong the opposite: our experts pressed for easing restrictions, while our pusillanimous government servants, like Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau, being more cautious. The experts are told to shut up.
