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The Impossibly Ludicrous Signs of Times

L1010131L (Leica D-Lux 5; multi-exposure)

Most of you have probably read the blog post of Tim de Lisle, Chief Editor of Intelligent Life, where he sort of bemoaned the overly post-processed images used in magazines. At the end of the post, Tim wrote, "But the shot is at least trying to reflect real life. It’s a curious sign of the times that this has become something to shout about."

If such a light subject for moaning is called a curious sign of the times, then how should we call the recent political scandals developing in Hong Kong? Maybe "the impossibly ludicrous signs of the times"?

For the purpose of education, the following are the billing, the scenario and some supplements from today's local English newspaper, South China Morning Post, about the scandals:

Characters:

1. Tung Chee-hwa, helmsman of the 1st term government after 1997

2.Donald, helmsman of the 2nd and 3rd term government after 1997

3.CY, convenor of the helmsman's de facto cabinet since 1997 until recently, and now the CE hopeful for the 4th term government

4.Henry, born to a local tycoon and turned to be the former Financial Secretary in early 2000s, later the Chief Secretary and now the CE hopeful for the 4th term government

What happened?

In a nutshell, our government leaders in the past, present and future are either involved in suspected indictable criminal offences, conflict of interest, covering up the conflict and impropriety to the verge of bribery.

DSC05072L(Song A55; I ran into Long Hair, lawmaker with an international fame for his long hair and Che Guevara T-shirt, and folks from his political party protesting against the corruption allegations swirling around the present CE. The prop shows the Chinese character "greedy")

Lines from today’s newspaper

Tung Chee-hwa covered up CY's failure to declare his alleged interest and the fairness of the contest's adjudication process.

(Lawmakers decided to invoke special powers to investigate the) possible conflict of interest surrounding CY's role on the judging panel of a arts hub design competition in 2001.

The allegations of impropriety currently swirling around Chief Executive Donald (in a nutshell, he is linked to accepting “benefits” from tycoons some of whom have been allegedly benefited from his policy decisions)…. As things stand, people with clout are seemingly able to flout the law with impunity, and this can no longer be tolerated.

Henry's illegal basement of over 2,000 sq ft sparked public outrage when it was exposed by a newspaper last month. The revelations came after five officials, including the chief executive Donald himself, were found last year to have had illegal structures built at their homes. Despite such non-compliance, the government told lawmakers yesterday that Donald will not request officials report to him after inspection. (And so far the public prosecutor, who is the secretary of justice whose boss is the Chief Executive, has not instituted any proceedings against those five officials with no specific reasons given)

What did they say in response?

In short, Henry said that he is victimised and is willing to guard Hong Kong's core values in joint hands with Hongkongers. He further proclaimed in a statement that he is going to win the "election" and be the next CE.

Donald said that he has complied with the rules on accepting treats he laid down for the incumbent CE who is himself. Simply put, the rules say that the he can accept tycoon's treats if he sees fit. To blandish the discontent public, he set up a committee to look into more stringent rules to govern the CE in future terms!

CY has kept saying that when the lawmakers have investigated deep enough, the whole truth of the accusation against him will be laid bare to the public.

Tung. Nowhere in sight.

------

There is a quote from Martin Luther King, "Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Very true and befitting.

These are the impossibly ludicrous signs of the times in Hong Kong.

(P.S.: After pondering a bit, I finally decided to file this post under the tag " Humour")

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