Discorporate

As state media demand more law-enforcement investigation into the disbanded Professional Teachers Union, the Civil Human Rights Front prepares to wind up. It looks like the purge of non-CCP-approved civil society will move on to the pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions. 

Then it will be the turn of the HK Journalists Association. Other groups, like the HK Society of Bird Watchers, the Chess Association and the Photography Club can’t be far behind. (Sounds crazy? In the Mainland, all such groups come under state bodies.)

Signs of a few problems the NatSec regime is facing: Mainland thin-tanker Tian Feilong says proposals for election boycotts are equivalent to sabotaging the ‘improved’ elections and creating an impression that Hong Kong does not now have true democracy; and a government circular urges NGO-type institutions including the Jockey Club not to hire Administrative Officers who have quit the civil service. (In Ming Pao, in Chinese, here and here.)

Official fears of an election boycott look well-grounded given that many voters will be offered only candidates they dislike thanks to elaborate measures to bar independents from the ballot (‘…a long-winded way of saying active support of one-party rule is a must’). 

It would be terrible if someone started a rumour that the government will also be checking cast ballots to see how everyone voted: it would strike many citizens as credible, and further decrease the turnout. Let’s hope no-one starts spreading such a scurrilous idea. 

Click to hear Uncle Frank explain the word ‘discorporate’!
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16 Responses to Discorporate

  1. Chinese Netizen says:

    It would be shocking…absolutely SHOCKING, I tell you, should government agents rifle through individual ballots to determine if citizens voted appropriately or not!

  2. reductio says:

    “The Society of Bird Watchers”? And is that all they’re doing? One minute they’re looking out to Deep Water Bay for the Lesser Crested Tit, the next they are observing s.e.c.r.e.t.s. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. “Chess Players”? Sitting there – playing games or playing p.l.o.t.t.i.n.g with their co-conspirators? So easy to slide to the other side of the board. And “Photography Club”? With their eye-phones and monchrome images of the German Werkbund and neO cont3mporary [sic] resonances of Bauhaus. And look how that all turned out with the collapse of the Soviet dream.

    Best observe them, Mr. Hemlock. Or infiltrate with patriots. I am waiting for the call.

  3. donkey says:

    “Mommy, what’s a fascism?”

    “Now now dear, let’s save questions like that for potty time.”

    “but the man says ‘election boycotts are equivalent to sabotaging the ‘improved’ elections and creating an impression that Hong Kong does not now have true democracy’, and I just want to know what that means. Does it mean that Hong Kong is a perfect utopia? should we not question anything the leaders tell us?”

    “Well, dear. You remember that story I told you about the lambs and the wolves?”

    “Yes?”

    “Well dear, grandma wong is going to be taking care of you for a while, while mommy goes on a long trip. but don’t worry, you can have all the sweeties you want while I am gone, and I’ll be back eventually.”

    “Okay mommy.”

  4. Herman Munster says:

    The only organisation to which one belongs is a learned society established in the mid-19th Century in another British colony. It was 50 years last month that one became a member.

    The Societies Ordinance of Hong Kong seems to cover many organisations: https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201605/18/P201605180647.htm but then so does the Companies Ordinance.

    To root out the bad-guys, where does the Government start?

  5. Probably says:

    It would also be a very bad thing if someone suggested to people to go and vote but spoil the ballot paper with depictions of genitalia against the liason office nominated candidates. Definately do not do this.

  6. Low Profile says:

    Tian Feilong may indeed be skinny, but I suspect you meant think-tanker, not thin-tanker.

  7. Load Toad says:

    I think voting is an issue of freedom of expression but I wouldn’t encourage people to vote through the medium of dance…

  8. Kwun Tong Bypass says:

    Comrade Feilong can rest assured that we do NOT WANT to boycott the selection endorsement, nor defacing or putting in an empty ballot paper, nor select everybody on it, and also not just get the ballot paper at the polling station, read it and then hand it back saying: ”There is nobody on it I like”, or eventually deregister as a voter, because we know that boycotting the selection endorsement, or defacing the polling paper, or putting in an empty ballot, or selecting everybody on it, or getting the polling paper at the station and read it and then give it back saying: “There is nobody on it who I like”, or deregister as a voter, is maybe not very productive because whether we DO boycott the selection endorsement, or deface the polling paper, or put in an empty ballot paper, or select everybody on it, or just get the ballot paper at the polling station, read it and then hand it back saying: ”There is nobody on it I like”, or deregister as a voter, or whether we DO NOT boycott the selection endorsement, or deface the polling paper, or put in an empty ballot paper, or select everybody on it, or just get the ballot paper at the polling station, read it and then hand it back saying: ”There is nobody on it I like”, or deregister as a voter – the outcome of all three options:

    1) boycotting the selection endorsement, or

    2) defacing the polling paper, or

    3) putting in an empty ballot, or

    4) selecting everybody on it, or

    5) reading it and then give it back saying: “There is nobody on it who I like”, or

    6) deregister as a voter

    – will be the same.

  9. Yonden Yahoo says:

    ‘ thin-tanker Tian Feilong’

    Genius, whether deliberate or not

  10. reductio says:

    @Low Profile

    I noticed that but assumed it was referring to his ersthwile stint as a T34 driver in the XXXVth Guards Shock Brigade (“The Iron Lawyers”).

  11. YTSL says:

    Much of the rest of the world is freaking out over the still ongoing pandemic and also climate change. We, meanwhile, are not since we have to deal with political persecution as well as that. And, amidst it all, there are those who just care for themselves and figure that since they’re okay at present, that’s enough for them. Oh, the humanity…

  12. Sadly, this is no joke. I am aware that the Hong Kong Scrabble Players Association recently “cleaned up” its website due to NSL concerns.

  13. Joe Blow says:

    I just read an article about Nicaragua. The political similarities with Hong Kong are eerie. A Marxist-Leninist head of state who also has a peculiar Catholic bent. Tick. The entire parliamentary opposition has been jailed. Tick. Major opposition newspaper has been forced to close down. Tick. Journalists, lawyers, unionists are persecuted or imprisoned. Tick. Nicaragua is an absolute basket case in whatever way you measure it. Hong Kong is not. But give it a few years….

  14. Mark Bradley says:

    “‘ thin-tanker Tian Feilong’

    Genius, whether deliberate or not”

    I’m voting deliberate

  15. tim hamlett says:

    Tina
    Feilong got a by-line pic in the Post when he first surfaced. Actually looked rather podgy.

  16. Knownot says:

    A scrabbler –
    I thought the Hong Kong Scrabble Players Association might be your own whimsical invention, but I see that it isn’t. Can you give an example of what they have done?

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