Grand dames let rip in Hong Kong
cat fight 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.
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