The South China Morning Post reports that Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption is bringing a former senior officer out of retirement to ‘beef up a key section’. Could this be the same key section that was ‘un-beefed up’ – maybe ‘beefed down’ – when operations boss Rebecca Li was mysteriously removed a few weeks ago? Yes it could.
Many observers – the New York Times being one of the latest – wonder whether Li’s departure is linked to an ICAC investigation into Chief Executive CY Leung’s UGL payment hoo-hah. In the grand scheme of things, the real issue is the contradiction between the ICAC’s independence and the Chinese Communist Party’s need to have total control. Beijing officials can’t sleep at night knowing that a Hong Kong law enforcement agency with British-trained (and indeed some actual British) staff can undermine state power. It’s the principle: if Beijing appoints a high official in Hong Kong, it can’t have some other body come along and prosecute the guy. Who’s in charge here? This is China. This has to be rectified.
Of course, this is the road to unintended consequences. An ICAC subject to Beijing’s ultimate influence will cease to be impartial and lose credibility. Growing cross-border and other corruption could damage Hong Kong’s business environment. As the SCMP points out, hasty government interference in ICAC personnel matters is already creating chaos…
Suddenly, everyone is called ‘Ricky’. What a tangled web we weave…
And the unintended consequences keep on coming. The government’s ‘loyalty test’ for election candidates is making household names out of formerly obscure pro-independence or otherwise localist figures like Edward Leung. An attempt to deny them a platform has become the best platform they could ever hope for.
To compound the idiocy, along comes Rita ‘heavyweight’ Fan. She seems confident that the courts can and will resolve everything neatly. Let’s put it this way: they will have to rule whether officials can bar someone from running for election on account of his opinions. Furthermore, if a lawmaker who signed the declaration subsequently voices support for Hong Kong independence, the government should in theory prosecute him for having lied at the time – or maybe for subsequently changing his mind. A rumour says Chief Secretary Carrie Lam thought up the ‘loyalty test’ idea; if so – since she is not dense – it is a parting time-bomb.
Thanks for all the good news.
Revolution is never obtained in a country with fair policemen.
And do they all deserve better? At heart you know they don’t.
This PR shit storm could have been avoided by simply keeping Ms. Li in her job. Then there would be no need for beefing…up or down.
But I guess the executive branch has been truly genius of late on exposing the cards of idiocy/ineptness on pretty much everything.
At least HK’s race to the bottom is being well documented worldwide.
D7689’s approval has taken another 8 point hit.
The real news is that there are still a few inbred cousins left who are not disapproving. I assume they work in the civil service.
Actually, what is perhaps surprising is the deafening silence from the good and the great, as if they were secretly pleased to roll back foreign evil forces.
And in fact, the heartlands of DAB/CY-ism/pro-China thought are the NT villages, where the (foreign-passported) electors count in the 100s but the nights are spookily quiet.
Remember, power grows out of a gun-barrel. Destroying the press, the ICAC and the judiciary is just icing on the cake, mere epiphenomena. What counts is the substructure, which remains more solid than ever.
I think the most surprising thing is that people still think this won’t happen if we get rid of 689, even the political parties with their calls for “Anyone but CY”.
Nobody seems to have worked out the blindingly obvious: it doesn’t matter a jot who the CE is, the only thing that matters is who’s in charge in Beijing.
You could replace CY Leung with the arch-high pokemon, Pikachu himself and it would still be the same (although the CE popularity numbers might be less in the toilet).
Once the rot and culture of corruption sets in , it is the beginning of the end of Hong Kong as we know it .
Corruption leads to power and wealth being held in the hands of a few.
Surely, the ICAC should be renamed ‘Rickity’?