SPEAKING
FREELY Of Hong Kong clowns and puppet
regimes By Kent Ewing
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
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HONG
KONG - Democracy presented a new face to the world last
week in this city of nearly 7 million. Unfortunately, it
was a clown's face, and the world is laughing.
After winning enough votes to earn a seat in the
Legislative Council (Hong Kong's mini-parliament), a
professional protester and self-professed Trotskyite
named Leung Kwok-hung was sworn into office amid a storm
of controversy that he was more than happy to generate.
Popularly known as "Long Hair" for his flowing mane,
Leung, 48, has been a thorn in the side of Hong Kong's
ruling elite for 20 years running. His histrionic
mastery of the slogan-filled art of protest has become
an amusing sideshow in Hong Kong's evolving political
life. But now, remarkably, that sideshow has moved to
center stage.
Dressed in his trademark Che
Guevara T-shirt and also wearing a black armband in
commemoration of those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen
Square crackdown, Long Hair was sworn into his new
office in the usually sober and august Legco
(Legislative Council) chamber. Just the day before he
had lost a legal challenge to radicalize the Legco oath
by adding to it populist rhetoric of his own, so all of
Hong Kong was caught up in the suspense over what he
ultimately would say and do. After all, he had made his
name getting kept out - and sometimes thrown out - of
the hallowed halls of government, not getting sworn in.
Would Long Hair finally cave into conformity?
Perhaps his prospective Legco salary of more than
US$6,000 a month - considerably more than he has earned
in previous employment as a decorator, a waiter and a
bartender - would prove a temptation too large to
resist. Such a boost in income would allow him to move
out of his 300-square-foot apartment in a public housing
estate into more fashionable quarters. In the past, Long
Hair's antics had twice landed him in jail. Now,
incredibly, he had landed in the halls of power. Surely,
for the sake of a little street theater, he would not
blow his big opportunity to become a part of the
mainstream of Hong Kong's political life.
In the
end, Long Hair pulled a fast one. Yes, he spoke the
oath, as the High Court had directed him to do, but what
happened before and after that was the kind of vintage
political farce that is Long Hair's stock in trade.
First of all, the chain-smoking Leung was late
for the swearing-in ceremony because he had stepped out
for a cigarette. Then, before taking the oath, he
unleashed a string of high-volume demands that more or
less called for the overthrow of the central government
in Beijing. In addition, as is his wont, he proclaimed
himself a champion of the people and an enemy of big
business and government.
There followed a brief
interlude of calm during which Long Hair was officially
sworn in, but then the burlesque continued in overdrive.
Fist thrust in the air, arm with armband waving, he let
additional slogans rip and echo through the Legco
chamber: "Long live democracy! Long live the people!
Elect the chief executive and Legco by universal
suffrage!"
His fellow legislators endured his
show of bombast in stony silence. And they surely do not
look forward to the next heroic battle that Long Hair
plans to wage in the chamber: Are his Che Guevara
T-shirts a violation of the Legco dress code? Hell no!
Power to the People!
And that, I am sorry to
report, is where Hong Kong stands these days in its
progress toward democracy. Since last April, when the
mainland's standing committee of the National People's
Congress quashed all hopes of universal suffrage in the
territory for the near future, we have been stuck with a
puppet chief executive officer, the singularly
uninspiring Tung Chee-hwa. We are also stuck with a
Legislative Council that, due to Hong Kong's perverse
electoral system, is dominated by pro-government
legislators, even though more than 60% of the Hong Kong
electorate cast their votes for the pro-democracy
opposition in last month's election.
No wonder
we have elected a clown to oppose a puppet regime. At
least we can now enjoy some comic relief.
Kent Ewing is a writer and teacher at
Hong Kong International School.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Please click hereif you
are interested in contributing.
