Today’s little amusement: columnist Simon Lee is suing lawmaker Regina Ip for defamation. This follows her claim that he conveyed a threat that Link Reit might ‘harass’ her party (presumably by evicting it from space at the landlord’s properties).
The story is now lost in the mists of time – but essentially Ip echoed commonly heard complaints about the Link’s property management practices, and Lee replied in some way. The latest development suggests that the strident lawmaker might have been careless with words when she accused Lee/Link of making a threat.
Those of us still suffering from tinnitus from Emily Lau’s performances in the Legislative Council many years ago will know that Regina would hardly be the first public figure in Hong Kong to exaggerate for effect. If she shoots from the hip in your direction, the calm and cool response would be to ignore her, or at most treat her allegation with mild (but of course strictly gender-neutral/non-ageist/etc) condescension.
Making a big issue over who said what looks petty and oversensitive. Taking legal action is possibly unwise because – to some shallow and cynical scumbags out there, unbelievable though it may seem – it raises the suspicion that you are in fact guilty and fooling no-one by overreacting.
Worst of all, however, is the risk to one’s own reputation: you could become The Man Who Took Regina Ip Seriously. I shudder at the very thought.
Strangely, as a product of a very minor British public school, you have a rather low sensitivity to the presence of sexual perversion. The secret to underatanding Regina is all in sadomasocism: the way she live it, dishes it out, takes and gives the lashes with glee. I mean, just look at her, those eyes, those crooked lips and trust your instincts. I did a piece on this some time ago called THE STRANGE SADOMASOCHISTC WORLD OF REGINA IP and it got a lot of attention from Reddit and elsewhere. Here in the public interest it is:
Curiously, I have been watching a programme about Rose West, the naffest, saddest, cruellest mass murderess the UK has ever produced. Ugly, vile, mundane in her evil, she is now rotting away in silent obscurity and will never be released.
Then Regina Ip’s voice is heard on the radio like a rustling of bats in a deep cave. Regina Ip, the most reviled of all Hong Kong public figures, the former Secretary for Security who tried to foist an anti-subversion law on us, the first to resign from Tung’s government, because negative actions are what really count.
She resurrected herself as a think tank and wormed her way onto the Executive Council on the principle of gathering in the dark forces without. She has had several makeovers but still looks sullen, surly, her face collapsed like a Northern English factory worker harridan. But the comparison is too kind.
Ip was the first to kick Edward Snowden in the teeth yesterday. Our concern, and the concern of many people, is not that Snowden is a criminal, it is that he will be caught by his naive actions and dealt the fate of Bradley Manning, who has just undergone three years of torture and abuse that shocked even the stolid United Nations.
Not so Regina Ip. With positive delight she said that Hong Kong is not a “safe harbour” (she has trouble with English and meant presumably “haven”) and that Hong Kong would probably “follow the law”, as she sees it, and extradite Snowden without delay. The glee in her croaking voice was unmistakable.
In the sadomasochistic world, what counts are not Warm Fuzzies but Cold Pricklies: if you can’t get love and adulation from the world, get hate and revulsion. Ip seeks out situations and issues where she can reap her grim harvest. Her greatest recent victory was blocking a levy on domestic helpers, thus enabling more Hong Kong people to employ cheap domestic slaves. She also vehemently opposes the idea of such nasty brown people getting right of abode.
I saw Regina Ip recently, standing at the entrance of Watsons drugstore in Admiralty House. Normally, I insult public figures like her, or at least offer them an NTSCMP glare of righteous indignation. But this time I was stunned into silence and immobility. The forces of darkness descended and struck me dumb and petrified
“”f you can’t get love and adulation from the world, get hate and revulsion.” That could be the motto of any of the old crones who take such obvious delight in repeatedly telling Hong Kong people that Beijing says no to their aspirations – not just Regina but Rita, Maria, Elsie et al.
That should be “If…