Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Grand dames let rip in Hong Kong cat fight
Oct 16, 2007, Asia Times Online
By Augustine Tan
HONG KONG - Cheered on by the political class, two of Hong Kong's aging tais-tais (a Chinese term for a privileged woman of leisure) are publicly slugging it out to the utter amusement of the common folk.
In one corner representing the Democratic Party is Anson Chan, a Hong Kong and US educated former top civil servant under former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa and the last colonial Governor, Chris Patten. Known as "Hong Kong's conscience" for her steadfast support of the city's freedoms, former chief secretary for administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang, aka Chan Sei Man (for her icy smile which is said to resemble the "40,000" mahjong tile) is 67.
In the other corner stands her former subordinate and ex-security chief Regina Lau Ip Suk-yee aka "Broomhead" (after her flaring hairstyle which cartoonists found so amusing during her ill-fated campaign to push through anti-subversion legislation in 2002) whose opening shot was: "I'm 10 years younger than her!"
Ip, who also spent some time in the United States at Stanford University, is also known for her passionate support for a 1982 anti-sedition law as secretary for security which made her a symbol of fears of a Beijing crack down on Hong Kong's political freedom. However, when she announced plans to contest the vacant legislative seat she also said, "Democracy is the only way forward for Hong Kong."
The prize for this contest is the Legislative Council (Legco) seat left vacant by the recent death of Ma Lik, chairman of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). The winner will only have the seat for 10 months before fresh elections for the entire council are called.
The by-election is set for December 2 but official campaigning does not begin until nominations are filed later this month. Nevertheless both women are already hitting out at each other.
Supposedly the fight is over universal sufferage for Hong Kong where the chief executive is not directly elected by the people, but virtually rubber-stamped at Beijing's behest through an 800 member electoral college, hence the pro-democracy camp's adoption of Chan as their candidate and her elevation from "conscience of Hong Kong" to "goddess of democracy".
Ip, despite her "democracy come lately" stance, has Beijing's support since the DAB and the pro-government Liberal Party are backing her with organizational support.
The reality may be more prosaic.
A power struggle has been going on for the last couple of years between the leaders and younger members of the Democratic Party, flagship of the whole pro-democracy movement. Many of these rank-and-file members sit on district councils and feel it is time for them to move up to the legislature.
The party squabbles have led to leakage of confidential party documents on the Internet, accusations of collusion with Beijing and counter-accusations of sabotage on Beijing's behalf, followed by an internal inquiry without any resolution of grievances.
The elitist leadership is simply not about to admit anymore of the proles into its ranks, hence their need to recruit someone of stature - from the ranks of Hong Kong's elite - to contest the by-election without splitting the party. Initially Chan was reluctant to run and some very big names in Hong Kong society were enlisted to cajole her. If the more rabidly anti-Democratic Party media are to be believed, even the British were enlisted to persuade her.
On the pro-China side, the issue was altogether different: Ip went knocking on their doors to solicit support. It was something of a godsend because neither the DAB nor the Liberal Party had anyone else of stature to contest the seat.
Successive public opinion polls in recent years have shown that the general public is totally bored with politics. Now, with the stock market likely to soar above the once "impossible" 30,000-point mark before polling day it might have been expected that the fight between these two women would be ignored.
Not so. There is, in fact, tremendous interest in this tussle of the tai-tais. Hong Kong people love to see a good fight. But this is much, much more than that - it could be a once-in-a-lifetime punch-up.
For outsiders to understand the exquisite nature of this fight, some characteristics of Hong Kong society need to be understood.
Hong Kong is a highly stratified society where everybody is expected to know his place and to keep himself there. At the top of this society are some two dozen or so established families who, generally, do not soil themselves with such common activities as politics.
Some members of these families see themselves as rightful heirs of the British in the running of Hong Kong. They will not come right out and say so, of course. They simply expect to be courted by the powers-that-be.
The British cultivated them; the Chinese did not. Or not to the extent that the British did.
Except for a notorious few (notably gambling mogul Stanley Ho), members of these established families are men and women whose desires, disdain or contempt are expressed with a nod of the head, an icy stare or a brief nod of the head. Rarely is anyone publicly criticized or scolded; face is paramount and no one, no matter how contemptuous, is made to lose face.
This much even the wretchedly poor in Hong Kong understand. So it astonishes them to hear and see on TV two elderly tai-tais from two established families going at each other's throat. It's simply not the done thing.
Chan has accused Ip of using the Legco venture as a trial run for her "grander plan to become chief executive" and questioned her opponent's sudden passion for democracy, asking: "I wonder who is a sudden democrat, myself or Regina?"
For her part, Ip, a woman who once argued against universal sufferage by saying, "Adolf Hitler was returned by universal suffrage, and he killed 7 million Jews ... one-person, one-vote is no panacea," has called Chan's comments "too far fetched", adding, "I'm really bewildered by what Anson Chan has said."
It is obvious that these two women have something between them that has nothing whatever to do with democracy, Beijing or even what's good for Hong Kong. They are not merely questioning each other's motives for contesting the seat or a sudden passion for democracy. They're also talking about who did what to whom during their time in the civil service under the British. No face spared and none given.
Ip had been regarded as a shoo-in candidate soon after the DAB chairman passed away. Then Chan was talked into running - and everyone, media and multitude alike, wrote off Ip.
Since the two started to swing at each other Ip has been catching up with each successive opinion poll. Most of these polls are conducted by pollsters sympathetic to the pro-democracy camp; one of them even organized the "primary" which ensured Chan's candidacy.
There's not much that is at stake in this by-election, no matter what the media say. Under the Basic Law the ultimate decision on Hong Kong's constitutional development lies with the Central Government of China. Period.
Hopefully, this tai-tai slug fest may convince others in the established families to abandon their own "Queensbury" rules of proper fighting behavior and get down to dirtying or glorifying themselves in politics. That may really help push Hong Kong along the road to democracy.
Augustine Tan is a freelance journalist based in Hong Kong.
By Augustine Tan
HONG KONG - Cheered on by the political class, two of Hong Kong's aging tais-tais (a Chinese term for a privileged woman of leisure) are publicly slugging it out to the utter amusement of the common folk.
In one corner representing the Democratic Party is Anson Chan, a Hong Kong and US educated former top civil servant under former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa and the last colonial Governor, Chris Patten. Known as "Hong Kong's conscience" for her steadfast support of the city's freedoms, former chief secretary for administration Anson Chan Fang On-sang, aka Chan Sei Man (for her icy smile which is said to resemble the "40,000" mahjong tile) is 67.
In the other corner stands her former subordinate and ex-security chief Regina Lau Ip Suk-yee aka "Broomhead" (after her flaring hairstyle which cartoonists found so amusing during her ill-fated campaign to push through anti-subversion legislation in 2002) whose opening shot was: "I'm 10 years younger than her!"
Ip, who also spent some time in the United States at Stanford University, is also known for her passionate support for a 1982 anti-sedition law as secretary for security which made her a symbol of fears of a Beijing crack down on Hong Kong's political freedom. However, when she announced plans to contest the vacant legislative seat she also said, "Democracy is the only way forward for Hong Kong."
The prize for this contest is the Legislative Council (Legco) seat left vacant by the recent death of Ma Lik, chairman of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). The winner will only have the seat for 10 months before fresh elections for the entire council are called.
The by-election is set for December 2 but official campaigning does not begin until nominations are filed later this month. Nevertheless both women are already hitting out at each other.
Supposedly the fight is over universal sufferage for Hong Kong where the chief executive is not directly elected by the people, but virtually rubber-stamped at Beijing's behest through an 800 member electoral college, hence the pro-democracy camp's adoption of Chan as their candidate and her elevation from "conscience of Hong Kong" to "goddess of democracy".
Ip, despite her "democracy come lately" stance, has Beijing's support since the DAB and the pro-government Liberal Party are backing her with organizational support.
The reality may be more prosaic.
A power struggle has been going on for the last couple of years between the leaders and younger members of the Democratic Party, flagship of the whole pro-democracy movement. Many of these rank-and-file members sit on district councils and feel it is time for them to move up to the legislature.
The party squabbles have led to leakage of confidential party documents on the Internet, accusations of collusion with Beijing and counter-accusations of sabotage on Beijing's behalf, followed by an internal inquiry without any resolution of grievances.
The elitist leadership is simply not about to admit anymore of the proles into its ranks, hence their need to recruit someone of stature - from the ranks of Hong Kong's elite - to contest the by-election without splitting the party. Initially Chan was reluctant to run and some very big names in Hong Kong society were enlisted to cajole her. If the more rabidly anti-Democratic Party media are to be believed, even the British were enlisted to persuade her.
On the pro-China side, the issue was altogether different: Ip went knocking on their doors to solicit support. It was something of a godsend because neither the DAB nor the Liberal Party had anyone else of stature to contest the seat.
Successive public opinion polls in recent years have shown that the general public is totally bored with politics. Now, with the stock market likely to soar above the once "impossible" 30,000-point mark before polling day it might have been expected that the fight between these two women would be ignored.
Not so. There is, in fact, tremendous interest in this tussle of the tai-tais. Hong Kong people love to see a good fight. But this is much, much more than that - it could be a once-in-a-lifetime punch-up.
For outsiders to understand the exquisite nature of this fight, some characteristics of Hong Kong society need to be understood.
Hong Kong is a highly stratified society where everybody is expected to know his place and to keep himself there. At the top of this society are some two dozen or so established families who, generally, do not soil themselves with such common activities as politics.
Some members of these families see themselves as rightful heirs of the British in the running of Hong Kong. They will not come right out and say so, of course. They simply expect to be courted by the powers-that-be.
The British cultivated them; the Chinese did not. Or not to the extent that the British did.
Except for a notorious few (notably gambling mogul Stanley Ho), members of these established families are men and women whose desires, disdain or contempt are expressed with a nod of the head, an icy stare or a brief nod of the head. Rarely is anyone publicly criticized or scolded; face is paramount and no one, no matter how contemptuous, is made to lose face.
This much even the wretchedly poor in Hong Kong understand. So it astonishes them to hear and see on TV two elderly tai-tais from two established families going at each other's throat. It's simply not the done thing.
Chan has accused Ip of using the Legco venture as a trial run for her "grander plan to become chief executive" and questioned her opponent's sudden passion for democracy, asking: "I wonder who is a sudden democrat, myself or Regina?"
For her part, Ip, a woman who once argued against universal sufferage by saying, "Adolf Hitler was returned by universal suffrage, and he killed 7 million Jews ... one-person, one-vote is no panacea," has called Chan's comments "too far fetched", adding, "I'm really bewildered by what Anson Chan has said."
It is obvious that these two women have something between them that has nothing whatever to do with democracy, Beijing or even what's good for Hong Kong. They are not merely questioning each other's motives for contesting the seat or a sudden passion for democracy. They're also talking about who did what to whom during their time in the civil service under the British. No face spared and none given.
Ip had been regarded as a shoo-in candidate soon after the DAB chairman passed away. Then Chan was talked into running - and everyone, media and multitude alike, wrote off Ip.
Since the two started to swing at each other Ip has been catching up with each successive opinion poll. Most of these polls are conducted by pollsters sympathetic to the pro-democracy camp; one of them even organized the "primary" which ensured Chan's candidacy.
There's not much that is at stake in this by-election, no matter what the media say. Under the Basic Law the ultimate decision on Hong Kong's constitutional development lies with the Central Government of China. Period.
Hopefully, this tai-tai slug fest may convince others in the established families to abandon their own "Queensbury" rules of proper fighting behavior and get down to dirtying or glorifying themselves in politics. That may really help push Hong Kong along the road to democracy.
Augustine Tan is a freelance journalist based in Hong Kong.
Labels: Hong Kong
¶ 11:43 AM
