On the third anniversary of the first big anti-extradition protest in 2019, Carrie Lam tells the Legislative Council that her record in office is ‘nothing to be ashamed of’. So let’s see: mass demonstrations met by excessive police action, postponement of elections, arrests of pro-democracy politicians, closure of Apple Daily and numerous unions and civil groups, the NatSec Law with special no-jury courts, subversion and sedition charges routine – plus a massive death rate from Covid earlier this year, and continued quarantine and other zero-Covid pointlessness cutting the city off from the world.
Nothing to be ashamed of? Yes – if she can claim that she wasn’t really in charge. No-one can remember much happening in the first two years of her term in office, when One Country Two Systems was still in effect, and she did seem to have control, in a dithering, accomplishment-free way. Hey – a ‘civil service college’!
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s top cop disputes that the city is becoming a ‘police state’. We need a definition, so here’s Wikipedia, quoting an academic work…
…since the beginning of the 20th century [the term] has “taken on an emotional and derogatory meaning” by describing an undesirable state of living characterized by the overbearing presence of civil authorities.
What were we just saying? Excessive police action, postponement of elections, arrests of pro-democracy politicians, closure of Apple Daily and numerous unions and civil groups, the NatSec Law with special no-jury courts, subversion and sedition charges routine. Plus assorted creepiness like the cryptic warning the public not to watch Revolution of Our Times if they are ‘unsure of the potential legal risks’.
What is interesting is that Commissioner Siu obviously finds the ‘police state’ tag objectionable. Can’t he join Carrie in feeling he has nothing to be ashamed of?
The ‘Just Some Noodles Will Do, Thanks’ Stupidest Recipe of the Week Award goes to the SCMP’s veal tartare with pickled shallot and Parmesan-paprika palmiers – ‘lean, light and elegant’. Includes at least one ingredient that ‘may be hard to find’, one that must be made ‘at least one day in advance’, and one that should be humanely reared. Plus one I’ve never heard of. (Oh, those things.) It’s a starter, so you’ve still got a main course to make.
One is grateful for the amusing epicurean observations to start the weekend.
Do people still attend dinner pah-tees? I thought most British had left the colony.
Sadly for Police commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee, from the Wikipedia article defining the Police State, under ‘Examples of states with related attributes’:
“Hong Kong has become a police state after passing the National Security legislation in 2020, following repeated attempts by People’s Republic of China to erode the rule of law in the former British colony.”
More PR work required by the Police Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner and Police Executive. Ahem. I mean Chief Executive.
Oh dear me, pan dems now being stripped of their medals:
“Veteran pro-democracy activists Yeung Sum, Sin Chung-kai, and former law scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting have been stripped of their civic honors by the government, after the decision was published in the official Gazette on Friday.
The Silver Bauhinia Medal and the Justices of Peace status granted to Yeung and Sin respectively were revoked. The pair was among a dozen pan-democracy heavyweights convicted last year for their roles in several illegal assemblies throughout 2019.
They were released from jail in April after completing their 14-month jail sentence. Sin had also left the city after his release.
Meanwhile, former law scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting has been stripped of his Medal of Honour – which was awarded in 2001 for his contributions to civic education”
Anyone with integrity would welcome the opportunity of being removed from the honours list as it no longer represents any degree of probity. Its main purpose appears to facilitate nobodies with low or dubious educational achievements to add some letters to their profiles. Example: Elizabeth Quat Pei-fan, BBS, JP
“Humanely reared veale”?
Never going to happen. Dreadful practice.
We should all do our part and not buy veale.
Humanely reared veal. Kind of like compassionate execution. But hey, whatever tastes yummy.
Once the tax-free, always the free.
With regard to the revoking of gongs, isn’t it high time that the British authorities rescinded the myriad awards shelled out to local “heavyweights” in times colonial?
After all, many of these so-called “élites” have done nothing since 1997 but bad-mouth the country to which they once feigned loyalty while pledgeing a desperate sort of fealty to Peking.
De-gong the turncoats, say I.