Back to the NatSec stuff… The trial of Cardinal Zen, Margaret Ng, Cyd Ho, Denise Ho and others accused of failing to apply to register the 612 Humanitarian Fund trustees will begin next month. Has anyone ever bothered to register a civil-society funding effort? This will look like plain vindictiveness – the individuals are high-profile, and the fund was of course aimed at assisting arrested anti-government protesters. With a prominent elderly priest and a renowned pop star, this will attract a lot of attention overseas, just as the government hopes to spread the word that rule of law survives in Hong Kong.
And two civil servants are arrested for allegedly posting social-media posts that ‘promote feelings of ill-will and enmity between different classes of the population of Hong Kong’. The NatSec apparatus, with its huge staff and budget, must find ways to justify its existence. At some point, they have to start trawling the Internet looking for anything or anyone that might pass as ‘seditious’. To injustice, add waste of taxpayers’ money.
Which brings us to David Webb’s latest round-up of the number of people held in jail without trial. Of all people in custody in Hong Kong, 10.4% were on remand at end-2000; that figure is now nearly 36%. (The number has been rising all along, but the fastest increase, from just under 23%, started at end-2019 – an extra 1,100 people.)
Fitch Ratings adds to ill-will and enmity with its new outlook for the Hong Kong economy…
We anticipate the latest partial relaxation of inbound quarantine requirements, to three nights in a designated hotel followed by seven days of periodic testing, will do little to stimulate the return of tourists and short-term business travellers, who have grown accustomed to the absence of any such restrictions across most jurisdictions…
…the government’s apparent prioritisation of broader national strategies and governance practices over economic competitiveness suggests a future policy trajectory that will increase risks to Hong Kong’s role as a leading centre for international finance and commerce…
From the HKFP civil servant article linkie:
“ Those convicted under the sedition law, which was last amended in the 1970s when Hong Kong was still a British colony…”
Someone is delightfully and deliberately disregarding the government’s new disingenuously revised version of history. Nicely done.
Our economy is heading south along with the Hang Seng Index and the need to keep Joe Public mute with handouts is draining the lauded fiscal reserves.
But no mention of any programme to reduce expenditure, like trimming the NS budget.
Leggers and civil servants with their iron rice bowls operate in cocoons.
At a recent meeting of the Finance Committee Leggers approved $460m for the construction of another VTC complex at Cha Kwo Ling waterfront. This despite the fact the VTC already has a large and recently built campus just along the road at TKO.
When some members said that any new VTC facilities should be built to serve the hundreds of thousands to be housed at the new towns in NT, where there are currently no tertiary options for those who fail to get into university and no dedicated educational services for the disabled, members of DAB said ‘mo man tai, they can build another one there’!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely shocking is the allocation of $76.6m for “Construction of new LPG station”
The Environmental Protection Department and Electrical and Mechanical Services Department are responsible for the construction of new LPG station.
But the Government indicated in the 2021 Policy Address that it would actively promote the development of electric commercial vehicles and dole out millions to this end like “The government is preparing to convert, in the medium to long run, existing petrol filling stations and gas filling stations into quick charging stations for charging various types of vehicles (including e-taxis).”
https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr2022/english/fc/pwsc/papers/p22-21e.pdf
Rule by patriots clearly does not include any attempt to achieve fiscal responsibility. But when the money starts to run out it will be the grass roots who will be impacted via reductions in health, education, social and community facilities while those responsible continue to enjoy services in the private sector that only they can afford.
Can you start a weekly Vittachi-watch segment? He’s becoming increasingly deranged. A few days ago he said that being a Chinese today is the same as being a Jew in the 1930s. Even staff at his Herman Hu-funded rag are turning on him.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3188502/hong-kong-technology-chief-vows-clear-road-map-innovation?module=lead_hero_story&pgtype=homepage
Greater Bay Area Acolytes Anonymous
(I thought of much ruder versions)
@Mary Melville
Watch corruption rise in the patriotically improved LegCo with the evisceration of any independent scrutiny. Quality of law making will also decline for
The same reason.
@Casual Observer
I’d prefer to have a slightly less frequent Vittachi-watch than weekly: how would you feel about a round-up on what the slimy one is up to every other millennium?
China’s latest White Paper on Taiwan sparks this thought: if I say “Come into my bed”, that’s seduction. If I say “Come into my bed or I won’t rule out forcing you in”, that’s rape.
@Mary Melville
Perhaps your offering can be summarised in the three principles of life (slightly amended)
1. Who benefits?
2. Follow the money
3. Quis praecipuus custodit? (who watches the privileged?)
@Hemlock. You will have already noted but for an underline, a la today’s great post by you, le claque dash for the exits looks pretty adamant: Hong Kong’s hop topic de l’annee (Nat Sec legislation) garners not just less than a handful but less than a few FINGERS of response.
(Ed: That’s enough Le Frog, thank you)
On the upside. Le claque will be boring their new neighbours in Hemel Hempstead and Melbourne and cheaper parts of Portugal how they fought for Hong Kong from behind their keyboards.
@Nury Apparatchik
The less Nury the better. I see your proposal that Nury be considered every other millennium and raise it… that we consider Nury only every tenth millennium. Okay, okay. If you insist: that we consider Nury every hundredth millennium
Every time I am forced to meet and converse with that Nury imbecile is dreadful.
Nury is DREADFUL on so many levels.
wmjp
That link of yours led to a screed more boring than it has been my misfortune to encounter for quite some time. But of course you knew that anyway.
Needless to say, Pikachu’s vapid sales pitch inadvertently blows the gaff by begging the question of who in their right mind, particularly if possessed of an ounce of talent, would choose to come and live in today’s Hong Kong in the first place.
Oh, and may I add in passing that I regard Nury Vittachi as a prize twat?
Oy, Dr Zhivago – what’ve you got against my home town? (Clue: not Melbourne or Portugal.)
Innovation HK-style requires the innovator to hand over all IP rights to the University or Government agency that has funded the research. That includes patent rights and copyrights.