Tamar leveled by rampage of angry militant senile

You know your protest against the Hong Kong government is complete when a bunch of cantankerous elderly folk waving Chinese flags are bussed in to oppose you. The pro-HKTV demonstrators outside the Legislative Council were thus honoured yesterday, as lawmakers debated using special powers and privileges to force the administration to reveal why the Executive Council rejected the upstart broadcaster’s application for a licence.

The South China Morning Post reports one senior citizen’s considered analysis: “Exco owes the public no further explanation. Their decision must be correct.” An interview with the old guy would have been fascinating. Maybe he took his free lunchbox and just chanted what he was told to; maybe he really holds blind hatred for the activists, radicals and dissenters. Either way, there is something a bit chilling about it, probably because it echoes episodes in my current read, Frank Dikotter’s Tragedy of Liberation, about the Communist persecution, starvation and killing of supposed landlords and capitalists in 1950s China (a Jasper Becker review is here).

(Maybe the aging flag-waver genuinely believes Exco has collective genius. No – he can’t be that demented.)

The appearance of mouth-frothing, geriatric, even – God help us – Chiuchow, patriots confirms that the HKTV saga has become another official, permanent divide between the rulers and the ruled, alongside Article 23 and National Education. Even legislator Lam Tai-fai (nominally independent but actually of the Liberal Party/textiles ilk) called the government suicidal as he announced his support, presumably under pressure (more shades, at a pinch, of the 1950s; he’ll denounce his parents next). He and other functional constituency representatives must know that they could be helping to dig their own graves too, siding with the administration on this issue, at this time.

So expect one angry crowd, plus perhaps a gaggle of the aggressive aged, when (assuming) Legco votes against the Powers and Privileges Motion. And then we still have a judicial review to go.

At this point, you would expect the Global Times – if it took any interest at all – to accuse the pro-HKTV protest movement of being part of a CIA and Taiwanese plot to usurp power in Hong Kong, and use the city as a base for a US-led alliance with militaristic Japanese hegemonists and regional monkey-republics planning to sink the glorious motherland’s fleet of half-completed aircraft carriers and deny the country its peaceful rise to Big Boss of Asia and thwart its rightful historic claims of sovereignty over the moon.

But no. A thoughtful-sounding Mainlander doing a PhD in economics at Chinese University turns up instead. The problem, he says, is a government “drafting policy on the basis of corporate needs.” He fears a backlash in the form of a demagogue candidate in a democratic election in 2017, which is possibly a bit alarmist. But his basic theme, that crony capitalism could damage the relationship between Hong Kong and the Mainland, is astute, and its appearance in a (admittedly wacky) subsidiary of the ideologically forceful People’s Daily at least mildly interesting.

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8 Responses to Tamar leveled by rampage of angry militant senile

  1. Sid says:

    “crony capitalism could damage the relationship between Hong Kong and the Mainland”. Is it just my imagination, or have you fallen, in an otherwise classic piece, for Chinese Rhetorical Dirty Trick no 87: never accurately pinpoint the problem, but obsessively underline a minor blemish?

    Who cares a sxxx about the relationship when it’s Hong Kong’s very identity that is at stake?

    Nice link (3rd in sequence) to a sobering book review. Essentially, the West turned off its critical facilities in looking at post-WWII China. Now does that ring a bell somewhere?

  2. maugrim says:

    I thought the same thing about the oldies, funny, they also managed to turn up wearing the same T shirts and caps. Mind you, when you look at ‘rent a codger’, ‘astroturf’ groups and then listen to Beijing frothing about the ‘white hands’ of the US and UK at work in HK, I suspect its more an subconscious admission more of what China would do if they were the ‘foreign’ power with regards to HK.

  3. Real Tax Payer (retired) says:

    I quite liked the Global Times economic Ph D : (quote)

    “…However, this time there is renewed sentiment that the Hong Kong government has done something wrong but refuses to admit it.”

    So if even the Global Times can publish a sensible op-ed on an occasion like this what on earth is CY and his team thinking ?

    And yes – I could not help noticing on the news last night that the anti -motion bussed-in demonstrators all seemed to be in their 80’s.

    I still stick to my original thesis that the whole point of this HKTV thing was to test the waters for when the govt finally announces its decision re the 2017 CE-election and it’s a decision which:

    a) completely ignores the views of 99% of the populace who even bothered to take part in the futile consultation exercise ( sort of like a Town Planning Board consultation exercise in futility cubed)

    b) is rejected by 95% of the electorate and even by over 50% of the pro-govt factions

    c) is supported only by the tycoons and sons of tycoons

    d) cannot be explained because the final decision was made by EXCO behind closed doors

    e) is totally, utterly irreversible

    The equation must be something like for every 100 anti-govt protesters over HKTV there will be 10,000 protesters re the 2017 CE election decision.

    So I bet the govt is counting the number of anti-govt HKTV protesters with fear and trembling, just praying it does not go over 5,000 according to police estimates

  4. Sid says:

    Maugrim, They were and they did: remember the 1967 subversion riots and the “second stove” nonsense under Patten?

  5. Oneleggoalie says:

    Everything is Bollocks in this town…well maybe not long pillows with Chrissy Chau’s image on them…

    http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=en&redir_esc=&client=tablet-android-samsung&source=android-browser-suggest&v=141338691&qsubts=1383809657945&q=chrissie+chau

    bring back hanging and Chrissy Chau pillows !!!

  6. Onearmbandit says:

    The far more disturbing trend is the emergence of these “counter demonstrators” poisoning the already murky waters of street dissent in Hong Kong similar to the events in MK surrounding the Falun Gong and the boisterous teacher.

    It appears the belligerent counter demonstrators come armed with considerable hostility and prepared to rake muck. I’ve actually seen some of these types, and to classify them as senior citizens is a disservice to senior citizens. They look like retired triad types and fish mongers. I would be more worried if they were 40 years younger; wonder who’s bright idea it was to hire these geriatric thugs and inject them with snide.

  7. Joe Blow says:

    I just had a look at that ‘other’ website. Has anyone else ever noticed the weird similarity between George Orwell and Philly Whelan of RTHK (aka ‘the Cliff Richard of Hong Kong”) ?

  8. C.Law says:

    Oneleggoalie: agreed!

    Onearmbandit: you have hit the nail on the head, who is hiring these thugs? Where are the investigative journalists? It can’t be that hard to find the street level recruiters and then follow the trail back to the source. Or is there just a lack of willingness in this town to point out the levels at which triad societies operate?

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