‘Regina was robbed’ shock

You would have thought that anyone who took an interest realized long ago (say, late 1996) that Hong Kong’s Chief Executive ‘elections’ are a scripted charade – the outcomes being pre-determined in Beijing. The alternative, after all, is to imagine that the Chinese Communist Party leadership leaves the selection of a senior colonial/regional official to chance, or (even more unlikely) to a bunch of other people to decide for themselves.

But it seems that no-one told Mark Pinkerton, a member of failed candidate Regina Ip’s campaign. He is now denouncing the process as ‘a farce … all controlled by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government’. His HK Free Press article describes the process in illuminating detail.

While no surprise to most of us, it seems to have been a bitter shock to Mr Pinkerton. He had previously written in the South China Morning Post that ‘the belief that the Election Committee is a small circle of pro-Beijing patriots is a myth promulgated by the democratic camp’, and that the Committee ‘will nominate and endorse a candidate they think is best suited for the top job’.

Anyone watching events unfold in the months leading up to the last quasi-election could have seen what was happening. For example, when Regina launched her campaign last December, mega-landlord Allen Zeman and various other members of Hong Kong’s tycoon-bureaucrat caste supported her. And yet Regina mysteriously failed to win enough nominations to get on the ballot, and by the time of the joke-poll on March 26, her supposed friends were endorsing Carrie Lam, Beijing’s pre-arranged ‘winner’.

People who despise Regina Ip for her no-nonsense (or arrogant, obnoxious, etc) style might see this as just deserts. But the point is that the Communist Party wanted/needed her out of the way precisely because she has her own mind and ideas. Only a docile nonentity could appear on the ballot alongside Carrie – and Beijing’s officials considered even an unremarkable nice-guy like John Tsang alarmingly uncontrollable.

John attempted to cast himself as an outsider to win public support and nominations from the pan-democrats. Regina genuinely wanted to be the Communist Party’s chosen one, even founding a bizarre Maritime Silk Road Blah Blah Society to prove her loyalty. Kowtow. Do whatever it takes. Suck the Panda’s toes. Which is, of course, what her supporters were doing when they followed United Front orders to abandon her for Carrie. (The alternative in this Leninist system is to be a non-person in the regime’s eyes. Sadly, there are so many non-people, Carrie can’t find ministers for her administration.)

For the umpteenth time: He who lives by the shoe-shine, dies by the shoe-shine.

 

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12 Responses to ‘Regina was robbed’ shock

  1. WTF says:

    Did Regina’s crew really expect to win, or did they expect to be rewarded / bought off? The former would require that their mailing address is 15 Tsing Chung Koon Road, and as mad as they are, I don’t see it. The last few months were an flux between shoeshine and caged public whingeing meant as a threat and offer of compliance if properly bought off.

    Pinkerton and the rest of Vagina camp are probably more upset hearing another incompetent coat tail rider letting slip that no one Hara-Carrie considers competent (-ly corrupt) is willing to join her kleptocracy. Since they have not been asked, it’s a clear indicationi they were never under consideration and hence the outrage attempts to up their game (doomed to fail). (http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2084156/review-government-promotion-ladder-attract-more-talent)

    Carrie will simply get through by having David Li and the other oligarchy send excess staff to direct the government, as they always have.

  2. HillnotPeak says:

    Please don’t mention the german/canadian/chinese Zeman.

  3. LRE says:

    Reading Pinkerton Pinkstone’s article, I was amazed at the level of naivety on display — a level general only seen in a certain genre of 1970’s movies — “you mean the time machine only works if we take all our clothes off?”.

    And then I remembered: Mark Pinkstone was Chief Information Officer for Regina Ip’s campaign, a job that by definition requires almost total ignorance of Hong Kong politics to even think of applying for it. You have to be blissfully unaware of the fact the Regina Ip’s career died in 2003, and she is now a shambling political zombie, bolstered only by the dimwitted who “voted for her because I’ve heard of her”. You have to believe that people who nominate themselves “have a shot” at being CE. You have to believe that the CE is a position of political power, not vapid window dressing to cover up the CPC’s colonial rule.

    In short you have to be so high that unicorns seem plausible. Nice work if you can get it.

  4. Chris Maden says:

    Pinkerton’s “article” had me in stitches. Surely it wasn’t supposed to be taken seriously?

  5. As usual, you shouldn’t have read the article. That’s when the tedium of Hong Kong journalism attacks you and your own sense of humour is at risk. I’m sorry to say that you have over time become a victim of parochial third world journals.

    1. Stick with the headlines.

    2. Go no further.

    3. Imagination is better than facts.

    Just look at these beauties from the SCMP over the weekend:

    “Activist denies charge over alleged sandwich assault”

    “Beauty parlour left customer ‘looking like burned pig’ ”

    And a nice one from the Standard today, sounding as if it has been produced by an automated headline generator:

    “Aloha and that’s goodbye as Nu Skin feels visa pinch”

    Please don’t dignify these tedious third-rate scribblers with reading time and analysis. I haven’t read a Hong Kong news article for months.

  6. Joe Blow says:

    Looks like TripleCocks’ next cabinet is going to be same-old same-old. Yup: CY 2.0

  7. CassowaryWong says:

    They’re Pinky and the Brain,
    Yes, Pinky and the Brain,
    One is an arsewipe,
    The other is insane,
    They kissed all the right butts,
    But got kicked in the nuts,
    They’re Pinky, they’re Pinky and the
    Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain,
    Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain,
    Brain.

  8. Joe Blow says:

    “willing to serve society”. Try saying that with a straight face.

  9. Joe Blow says:

    As in “I joined CY Leung’s government because some people, like me, are always willing to serve society” *cue puke bucket*.

  10. Orange Clock says:

    Surely he’s just trying to get into Regina’s v …. pants

  11. Red Dragon says:

    Pinkstone comes across as a bit of a twat.

    Writes badly too.

    Anyone know anything about him?

  12. Just deserts? A typo, or a sophisticated pun about Regina’s supposed friends deserting her?

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