The struggle to stay a) relevant, b) in the public eye and c) in Beijing’s good books never ends. Former Financial Secretary Antony Leung inserts himself into your face to remind 
you that he still exists. RTHK3 this morning broadcast a clip of him reciting the most cringe-makingly laborious and redundant possible rejection of Hong Kong independence, in what sounded like a tone of ‘Do I really have to read this stuff out in English as well?’ after presumably doing it in Cantonese and (bearing target audience in mind) Mandarin.
Back in the late Qing Dynasty, imperial Chinese officials made it clear that Hong Kong would one day be returned to its rightful sovereign. The Kuomintang said the same at the end of World War II. Mao Zedong and comrades said it even as Communist troops refrained from crossing the border in the late 1940s; they repeated it through the 1970s and had the territory removed from the UN Committee on Decolonization’s list of places that should be free. And then in the early 80s the Sino-British joint declaration was welcomed and endorsed by the whole world. So to urgently and loudly insist that Hong Kong cannot and will not be independent is like banging the table with your fist on prime-time TV and angrily denouncing the ‘totally false proposition’ that the world is flat rather than round. It is ritual self-humiliation in order to prove loyalty – a public kowtow and backside-lick of the most nauseating type.
The funny thing is: the more you do this sort of thing and convince Beijing of your suitability to be Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the more the people of the city will see you as slimy and unacceptable (yes, even if you are pretty odious to begin with).
Among his other blather: ‘gradual and orderly approach’ to political development (an outdated slogan – he’s a bit out of touch); ‘balanced participation’ (code for ‘functional constituencies’, thus rigged votes and favours for vested interests); and contribution to ‘one belt, one road’ in the form of ‘lawyers and accountants’ (excuse me while I slash my wrists). He also says Hong Kong students should be ‘more creative and adaptable’. I declare the weekend open with the hopeful and scintillating thought that, faced with Antony ‘Lexus’ Leung as a possible Chief Executive, they definitely will be.
Do you think that if Lexus loosened his tie, his head would deflate?
@Big Al: See “Mr. Mackey” from South Park television series and you’ll see Lexus’ long lost twin brother.
I feel for the daughters of this loser, having to grow up with him as “father”.
Antony Leung is a cock.
The more officials go out of their way to rail against the colonial flag-waving independence fringe, the more attention they draw to them. It is like debating evolution with creationists, it only lends them the credibility they didn’t have. So:
a) they are too stupid to understand this,
b) they do understand it, but getting their names into the Spreadsheet of Loyalty is more important than anything else (Hemlock’s theory), or
c) they understand it very well and that’s the whoe point; they think the independence nutters are useful political boogeymen to keep around so they deliberately exaggerate their influence.
Leung and Tang, returning like prodigal sons as a dog returns to its vomit. Where else in the world are political figures so shameless in thinking people forget after a few weeks? Where else are the chosen ones raked over so often? It’s like a Tasmanian village.
On another matter, if you ever get to see the current season of the celebrity apprentice, Geraldo Rivera could very easily be Michael Tien.
Of course, the continued condemnation of Hong Kong independence is the surest way of ensuring that at some point in the future someone will try to make it happen. Currently around 25% of people would prefer it to HK’s current status (so not a “fringe” then), what’s the bet that this will increase as 2047 gets closer?
The old gits that snuck into HK back in the ’60s and ’70s are suddenly waxing sentimental for the Motherland now that HK is no longer the “get down to business where hardscrabble moxy may earn you a living” place they knew.
Unfortunately, the communist paradise they escaped and presently yearn for has also become much like the rest of the world where the connected .1% own 99% of the wealth and the rest are left to fight over the scraps, uncovered by social securities, etc.
After the last anti-parallel trading protests in Tuen Mun, one particularly obnoxious protester apologized for his behaviour the day afterwards in (I think it was) the Oriental Daily. Online commenters pointed out that he looked rather middle-aged for someone claiming to be a “localist youth”, and that he appeared to be wearing an awful lot of foundation in his Oriental Daily photograph because his face was a different shade from his neck. There might be a perfectly innocent explanation for this. Or not.
Does anyone remember The Life of Brian? Anyone who pronounces the forbidden word “Jehovah” must be sentenced and stoned to death, including the magistrate himself…
Anthony Leung is absolutely, completely, and totally irrelevant. He’s also a prize tosser.