We’ve had pricy PR consultants, senior officials’ overseas trips, multimillion-dollar Hello Happy Hong Kong campaigns, and numerous positive-energy speeches and press releases – and still the world remains unconvinced that Hong Kong is back to its old self.
But now, a glimmer of hope that at least something of the city’s adorable and unique character survives: a millionaire model’s murder, motivated – of course – by a real-estate dispute, allegedly involving an ex-cop/rape suspect (obviously) and a thwarted escape by tai fei, all ending with missing body parts in the inevitable village house. A classic recipe (don’t forget the carrots and green radishes). It almost feels like a British governor is in charge again (with Dodo Cheng starring in the movie that comes out just months later).
(Whole gruesome cast here.)
Back to the reality…
Security chief wonders why prison inmates hate the government, blames their visitors. (So, logically, prisoners will start loving the authorities if you ban visits.)
Standard editorial points out that even Macau has scrapped masks outdoors, and says it is hard to believe the local authorities will extend the mandate yet again. Dr Siddharth Sridhar asks why we’re still wearing the things…
…there is an innate cognitive dissonance in the Hong Kong mask mandate: people take off masks in high risk settings viz. restaurants, but have to wear them outdoors where the chance of catching a respiratory virus is negligible.
SCMP op-ed on government plan to enable Chief Executive to veto use of overseas lawyers in NatSec cases…
Having failed in court, the government now intends to make decisions on foreign lawyers itself. It is a bit like losing a football match and deciding that, in future, you will also be the referee. There will be no more inconvenient rulings on this issue by pesky courts.
…Judges in such cases already have to be approved by the chief executive. The Department of Justice can dispense with a jury and decisions of the high-powered national security committee are not subject to judicial review.
There are minimum sentences, a high threshold for bail, and now, under the proposed law change, the court will not even get to decide whether a lawyer from overseas can be hired.
And a HKFP one picks apart the government’s claims that the restriction doesn’t reduce defendants’ rights or judicial independence…
The Department of Justice could have argued that the effect of the changes proposed would be very limited, both in the number of instances in which it is likely to come up, and the effect on the proceedings when it does. It could further have argued that this occasional blip in the smooth progress of justice was a necessary price to pay for the important objective of safeguarding national security.
Instead, we get the “nothing is happening” argument again.
[The Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, said
that] the mask requirements will likely be
dropped at the end of the season . . . The
policy is still there on health grounds.
– RTHK, February 24
The Poet Laureate
Writes verses in advance;
It will no doubt be done
Before the Coronation.
In my humble rank
As Poet Lycheeate,
I’m preparing one
Before the Liberation.
Shall we really see
The old rules melt away?
Who naively asks
To be like other places?
We do!
Lips will burst out smiling,
Kisses will be free;
We’ll shed our silly masks
And show our happy faces!
I have noticed that, after three years of masks, quite a few people that I know look better with a mask than without.
Careful there – a blank piece of A4 for today’s image/link to the aural portion is dangerous given PK is clearly on a roll…
According to this Regulation https://www.hklii.hk/eng/hk/legis/reg/241N/s2.html (that’s the “THERE IS AN EMERGENCY” one), Hong Kong’s Chief Executive can still do whatever he likes and is still above the law.
Mildy surprised the ex-cop got arrested for murder. I thought headless bodies were “unsuspicious” nowadays.
Perhaps the cops felt he should face the consequences of going off-piste with the stew option, instead of doing it by the book and chucking the body into the harbour, or out of a high rise window and calling it a suicide.
You do have to wonder how much her surname being a homophone of “vegetable” in Cantonese had to do with the Kwong’s method of body disposal.
@Irish Stew – not headless bodies of rich people…
It’s reminiscent of the 1988 murder at Kornhill Estate in Tai Koo. The victim then was dismembered and boiled as well.
Just some open air questions, talking to myself, of course, wondering aloud about the Choi dismemberment.
How can the son of the retired police officer have a warrant on his arrest for years and never be taken in? This is perhaps self-evident.
And an alleged prostitute as a mistress, kept in a rented flat?
What led Choi to continue to feed this family, when she had no real incentive to do so? Yes, she had two kids with the former husband, but those kids seemed to be taken care of by the new “husband.”
I keep wondering if perhaps there was some kind of prostitution or other nefarious racket that Choi was perhaps party to or a partner in and there is more here than just a father in law getting upset about losing a famed piece of real estate.
It’s weird to me how so much of this story, including the threat of the father in law to kill Choi for selling a house, when she was also allegedly going to provide them with another house.
From time to time, I wonder how, in such a small place as Hong Kong, with fugitives walking around every day, it is so difficult to arrest them. Meanwhile, there are dozens of arrests of working girls for prostitution and drug mules for possession, in the order of metric tons of drugs… Is it just me, or does something seem off?
If the courts and cops put a fraction of the resources devoted to NS to tracking down scumbags like the ‘fugitive’ ex-husband tragedies like this could be avoided. Are there any stats on how many of them are still in town?
And apart from leaching off the unfortunate victim, how come this family had so much dosh to splash around on designer gear, mistresses, etc?
And then the facility with which the ‘fugitive’ was able to rustle up a tai fei ride to China. Its not like most folk have services like this on speed dial.
How did the father-in-law evade the rape charge?
As for finding the head in the soup pot two days after divers had been employed …
So many questions will go unanswered now that the media dare not report on any details that could reflect negatively on the establishment.
@mary also in Hong Kong there are severe penalties for reporting on cases that are at trial. anything dug up and reported on outside of the chambers of the trial itself result in big penalties for the reporter and media outlet.
in fact, this is one of the reasons why I am somewhat questioning the authority of the narrative that has come out so rapidly, before trial.