[hong kong slugfest] mahjong tiles v broomhead

Dragon fight in the offing

Why would, as the Asian Times put it, two of Hong Kong's aging tais-tais [a Chinese term for a privileged woman of leisure] be of any interest to you or me?

That’s answered in the first line of the article:

Cheered on by the political class, [they] are publicly slugging it out, to the utter amusement of the common folk.

Sort of like Boris, without the niceness.

The prize for this contest is the Legislative Council seat left vacant by the recent death of Ma Lik, chairman of DAB, which is of little interest to us. The winner will only have the seat for 10 months before fresh elections for the entire council are called.

First Contestant

Anson Chan Fang On-Sang, for a start, has a wonderful name.

Even better is the epithet applied to her - Chan Sei Man:

“... for her icy smile which is said to resemble 40,000 mahjong tiles. She’s 67 and was known, before an unfortunate situation, as the “conscience of Hong Kong.”

Her popularity took a plunge when she took on the task to promote the state security bill in September 2002. Aside from the concerns over the bill's potential threats to civil liberties, her responses to the public bordered on insults.

Second Contestant

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, GBM B.A., MA, MSc, M.Litt

Anson’s former subordinate and ex-security chief, since 2002, she has become such a controversial figure that detractors resorted to taking shots at her bushy hairstyle, nicknaming her "Broomhead".

She has openly admitted that she although she dislikes the nickname Broomhead, she would not change her hairstyle just to please her critics, retorting:

"If I can't even defend my hairstyle, how can I defend Hong Kong?”

In the current battle, her opening salvo appears to have been:

“I’m ten years younger than her!”

The point of the battle

Without going too far into Hong Kong politics:

“a power struggle has been going on for the last couple of years between the leaders and [rising] younger members of the Democratic Party, flagship of the whole pro-democracy movement.”

Hence the need to pressgang one of the elitists into action - hence Chan.

The more serious side of her is her anti-sedition legislation and being seen as being in Beijing’s pocket. 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.

Still not interesting?

The Asia Times pleads with you:

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.

So the common populace are greatly enjoying when Lady Ice asks:

"I wonder who is a sudden democrat, myself or Regina?"

… and when Broomhead, who was quoted as saying:

"Adolf Hitler was returned by universal suffrage, and he killed 7 million Jews ... one-person, one-vote is no panacea,"

… now argues passionately for democracy.

The pollsters are having a field day and though the result of this bi-election counts for little in Beijing dominated Hong Kong, for the ordinary citizen, a common street slugfest between two Grand Dames sullying themselves to win the common vote has been impossible not to savour whilst the spectacle lasts.

In our own western situation where the lights are going out all over the free world, the need for the elite to still kowtow to the common man must surely strike a chord.