EOC press statement ends locust scare, while government vanishes

Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunities Commission wades into the Locust-Gate morass with a plea to all of us to be nice and civilized to each other, phrased with all the hand-wringing even-handedness at which the Big Lychee’s bureaucracy excels. The EOC likes to see itself as a watchdog that, by the standards of local officialdom, is trendily ahead of the curve on social issues. Even so, they have a curious ability to make sensational and provocative topics (gay rights, for example) mind-numbingly dry and dull. We can safely declare that the more lurid side of the backlash against Mainland tourists is blowing over.

Nonetheless, the imagery – as befits a leaping insect – has legs. Shanghainese intellectual property thieves hijack the Apple Daily anti-locust/Mainlander ad for their own purposes. Which are to get back at the Cantonese running-dog bastards down south? No: to lash out against their own influx of bloodsucking peasants, the rural migrant workers with no residency rights in the city. The ones who earn a pittance dangling from ropes washing skyscraper windows. The ones we in Hong Kong feel so sorry for when municipal authorities pull their kids’ illegal schools down.

A welcome break from the usual blandness of opinion in the South China Morning Post’s op-ed pages comes from Lau Nai-keung, the perpetually angry, mouth-frothing patriot and scourge of the mass of Hongkongers (‘dissidents’) who fail to kowtow to Beijing. He is interesting because, as one of the devout faithful, he has to find ways to square intellectual circles. He loves the Communist Party because it works for the people; the same Communist Party appoints a Hong Kong government that blatantly sides with feudal-style landlord-tycoons against the people. In his struggles to get his head around such contradictions, he sometimes makes sense.

Lau’s current position, not unreasonably, is to support CY Leung to be the next Chief Executive instead of spoilt rich-kid Henry Tang. So the Great Anti-Locust Uprising of 2012 prompts him to point the finger of blame at the officials and policymakers.

His accusation comes with a pro-Beijing twist. The Hong Kong government, he maintains, brought local maternity services under unbearable strain by accepting the courts’ reading of the Basic Law as granting residency to children of all Chinese citizens born here. This was probably because the Basic Law explicitly states as much (Article 24 (1)). But the pro-Beijing camp maintains that their much-loved, invisible, parallel Basic Law – the drafters’ supposed ‘original intent’ some 20 years ago, which somehow failed to appear in the final text – denies this right to, lo and behold, Mainland mothers.

Still, at least he’s blaming the right people. Speaking of which: has anyone seen our leaders lately, other than reading out lame budgets? They seem to have absented themselves from the Mainland Locust controversy with stunning success. I always knew they had it in them.

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15 Responses to EOC press statement ends locust scare, while government vanishes

  1. Real Tax Payer says:

    Interesting you mention the mouth-frothing Lau nai-Keung. That op-ed in the SCMP was the second time I saw him write something sensible in the SCMP

    Also interesting you mention the EOC and gay rights. I wonder if it has ever occurred to the EOC the inconsistency that cable TV allows films of girls having sex with girls, but NEVER boys having sex with boys?

    I thought the term “gay” applied equally to both homosexuals and lesbians

  2. maugrim says:

    This is worth getting some popcorn out for and watching. Attempts at creating a ‘one nation’ identity in Hong Kongers (fail), Central Government official openly blaming inept local Government (tick), handwringing by Government agencies (tick). Wait till individuals actually start to vent about poor behaviour by Mainlanders just like the man on the MTR train did. Remember, HK’ers will generally absorb all manner of things that would earn a shout or a punch on the nose in Western countries such as pushing in on a line, but when they blow, boy do they blow.

    Mind you, who can blame people for not wanting to rush to Beijing for endless ‘interpretations’ of the Basic Law when we have a High Court who operate under a rule of law? For those clapping at Rita Fan’s remarks, be careful what they wish for.

  3. Rinky Dinky says:

    Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein iPhone!

    Admit it, you love it. It’s the great British revenge. People will start wearing brogues, tweeds, signing up to the British Council, demanding HP sauce and calling themselves Overseas British. And why not. Who wants to belong to the hoard up North?

    All we need now is for the British to offer 1000 passports or a duff document like the BNO and Hong Kong is British again. Hurrah!

  4. Locust Parentis says:

    I wonder how many BNO (or even BDTC, though probably none of those) passports are still out there.

  5. Stephen says:

    Like Maugrim I have watched in utter bemusement the attempts at creating ‘one-nation’ by our HONG KONG Government. It was always going to be a tough sell after 156 years and with China all wrapped up in the Red Flag and CCP.

    The HKSARG has 35 years left – any chance it might grow a pair during the time left and start going into bat for the persons living here?

    Remember during evil imperialist colonial times it was OK for the then HK Government to disagree with the Sovereign power. As RD inadvertently alludes to, British Passports was one of those disagreements.

    Weekend open?

  6. PropertyDeveloper says:

    The hoard up north should certainly travel more, it’s just the people that are better in smaller doses.

    Homosexual: “attraction or behavior between members of the same sex”.

  7. Reductio says:

    “girls having sex with girls” on cable TV. Is this indeed true? Shameful that such filthy material is available. Fair maidens swimming in a swamp of lesbotic juices. Ahem. No wonder HK is in the state it’s in.

    BTW how would one access this material? I would need to view these sordid displays (for research purposes) before writing a letter to the SCMP.

  8. jing says:

    This is going to take a lot more than an inept effort by the EOC to overcome. The anger genie is out of the bottle in Hong Kong.

    If our esteemed leaders don’t grasp the significance of local sentiment and act intelligently*, Hong Kong will be damaged. Whatever follows, you can bet it will be China 1 HK 0.

    * I know, no track record

  9. Resigned says:

    Stephen: I’m not waiting around to find out. It was fun while it lasted but it’s all downhill from here.

  10. Walter De Havilland says:

    Had an interesting encounter with a well-spoken Mainland chap yesterday, who expressed the view he feels sorry for HKers. He commented that the Mainlanders are intrigued to visit Hong Kong because of it’s colonial past, and yet he observed our government is busy dismantling that past or erasing it from memory. With delight, he brandished a picture he had taken with an Expat cop in uniform.

  11. Real Tax Payer says:

    @ Reductio Check NOW TV channels 901 ….

    @ PD : ?? So what’s the male equivalent of “lesbian” ?

    @ ALL : Just to state my colors – I am firmly on the side of the Mainlanders and I found the locust thing totally offensive TOTALLY! Nearly all my best friends are from the Mainland and are wonderful people and I spend 2/3 of my time living in the mainland. The only real problem is – I think – that nearly all the tour groups are from the countryside / lower tier cities, so they are the Mainland equivalent of the typical Billy Butlin holiday camp / bus them all to Blackpool for soggy fish and chips in the UK “tour groups , and I certainly know which of the two group nationalities I prefer

    Yes of course many of the tour groups participants are somewhat rough-edged ( not surprising when they are knocked about by unscrupulous HK tour guides ) . But then, so was HK when I got here in the early 80’s and 20 years ago that’s what the typical HK tour group was like when they went off to ‘see Europe in a week’

  12. KY says:

    Without the British colonial govn’t to blame on this time, Lau Nai-keung will eventual hit the right nail given he tried enough times. But wait Sir Tsang is a British “running dxx” too, ah, the world is just a mobius strip.

  13. Walter De Havilland says:

    @RTP. I agree.

  14. Sir Crispin says:

    RTP, girls having sex with girls is considered a work of art. And if it’s not, it should be!

  15. foamier says:

    I relinquished my membership of the HKGCC when they held their 150th anniversary celebrations in English and Mandarin without a word of Canto. HONG KONG General Chamber … geddit?

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