Everyone, from the middle-class Civic Party, to the Standard’s fictitious pro-establishment shoe-shining editorialist Mary Ma, to the radical League of Social Democrats, to the police, to the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong join the Big Lychee’s great 
cause celebre: outrage at Magistrate Anthony Yuen’s decision to let senior judge’s niece Amina Mariam Bokhary off without jail time after her third conviction for assaulting a cop, because she comes from a nice rich family.
Everyone. I had never heard of the Young Liberals before, but there they are, standing there in their yellow T-shirts – the junior wing of everyone’s favourite pro-cartel, pro-inherited wealth political party, demanding equality before the law for all. (I say ‘everyone’. Our least-favourite pro-cartel, pro-inherited wealth political party, the Liberals’ odious Economic Synergy offshoot, have yet to jump on the bandwagon.)
Needless to say, such a cacophony leaves the government with no choice but to go into full, panicky damage-limitation mode, dousing the flaming doors of empty stables and asking Magistrate Yuen to review his judgement.
It is easy to see why the street-fighting LSD are up in arms: when their members slap a cop, they end up behind bars for a week or two. Our gallant law enforcers’ anger is not hard to understand either: I wouldn’t like it if a court ruled that it is OK for people to hit me provided they’re wealthy and did well at school. But when ‘Mary Ma’ and the Liberals start calling for equality and justice, you know something is up.
This is not mere populism, though the Standard has readers to attract and the Liberals have delusions of winning votes in democratic polls. Yuen’s sentencing and comments come at a bad time.
Hong Kong property developers have become so unpopular that they’ve commissioned Ogilvy Public Relations to tell them exactly what aspect of their conniving thievery is the problem. Even the banks are telling customers they can’t afford a home. New Privacy Commissioner Allan Chiang is a bureaucrat has-been buddy of Chief Executive Donald Tsang who as Postmaster General spied on staff areas with hidden cameras. Prudence Chan, caught fibbing about whether the MTR’s Octopus company was selling cardholders’ data, announces her graceful and unhurried resignation.
Things aren’t spiraling out of control, exactly, but there is a whiff of 2003-style revolution in the air – except this time aimed at an entire ruling caste. The last thing the great and good need is a dickhead magistrate riling the common folk by doing favours for a spoilt, well-connected dipso who whacks dutiful constables. Outraged Trotskyites, angry police officers and conscientious lawyers scrabbling to lynch Magistrate Yuen will have to fight their way through the city’s elite first.
My eyes bulged at the idea that the Liberal Party had a jugend division and that they were asking for equality before the law (excepting of course Government subsidies and handouts. Remember the Liberal’s ideas to give people vouchers to spend at local businesses?)
Still, it’s funny to see some bastions of conservatism agreeing with the LSD.
Pleased you can at least discern a revolution coming somehow, vaguely, between all the trivia. Keep reading Montesquieu. And me of course. Never interfere with the iron laws of history. Just sit back and enjoy – and move all your assets in good time. In your case, sell the flea pit now.
Viva la revolucion!
expression of the day: “well-connected dipso”
Track of the day: “Won’t get fooled again”. A blast of The Who!
It’s always been like this, in an oligrachy like HK the ruling families and elites are almost untouchable; I bet if she was Philipino or Nepalese it would have been a completely different outcome.
Good blog by the way.
Oh btw i think she is adopted, im not sure though.
This evening I was trying to escape the downpour in Central and I found refuge in a street-level bar at the back of Cosco Tower in Wing Lok Street. They were playing CCR, so great music. After about 5 minutes it dawned on me that at every other table people were happily puffing away, packs of cigarettes on the table and ashtrays courteously provided by the management.
Smoking ban ? What smoking ban ?
taking a conveyance without authority, driving without a licence, using a vehicle without third party insurance, drink-driving and careless driving
community service
Mike kHunt: that sounds like Cafe Nirvana, opposite the MTR exit.
That mama-san is a hard character.
Passable, these are merely minor issues for HK’s rich and famous (R&F) – surely we all have the luxury of getting letters of support from Legco members, upstanding members of the community and others held in high esteem by society to validate ones good upbringing and highlight that failures by HK’s R&F have just minor errors of judgment.
As said earlier, if the nationality and status of the person in question was anything other, straight to slammer would have been the outcome with a heavy dose of criticism from the judge for been an evil no gooder who was the scum of humanity – a bit like what happens after you shot someone from Nepal or “steal” a photo from a Canto star – NOT.
This whole thing smacks of the have and the have not’s – a bit like HK society really. I guess let’s see what the judge actually does in his “review” – maybe she might get off entirely this time as he made an error because he too is bipolar and drinks to cope!!
If her parents are loving, caring and soooo well-off, why the *&%$ do they let her still drive on her own ???? Hire a chauffer for her ( and if nessary a strong man to sit next her and physically restrain her if a cop comes within srtriking rane )