The racism we pretend does not exist in Hong Kong
Updated: 2015-06-09 07:33
By Lau Nai-keung(HK Edition)
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'Sock the racists in the face and knee them in the groin. They understand no other language," columnist and television show host Michael Chugani.
What a graphic statement!
As always, Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) Chairperson York Chow promptly responded in an attempt to pre-empt anything that might make him look bad. "I refer to the Public Eye column ('Ugly sickness of racism shames our society', June 3)," he wrote in the South China Morning Post, "Like Michael Chugani, the EOC has all along been deeply concerned with the discrimination faced by Hong Kong's ethnic minorities, including in accessing equal education and in the provision of services. Since the Race Discrimination Ordinance came into effect in 2009, we have handled thousands of inquiries and investigated hundreds of complaints received under this law."
Alright, York, we know you are a good man. But I am curious about one thing: Writing on June 4 (readers will note that is just one day after Chugani's column was published), you are more concerned with things such as difficulties faced by ethnic minorities opening bank accounts, which the Post admitted "are not news any more," than the sorry saga of Siu Yau-wai, bearing in mind that June 4 is also the same day that Siu decided to return to the mainland because of the hostile reaction he received.
If you remember the case of Siu, the 12-year-old boy who has lived in Hong Kong without identity documents for nine years, came to light thanks to unionist legislator Chan Yuen-han. She called a press conference to highlight the boy's plight on May 21. Chan might have had good motives, but she failed to anticipate the level of anti-mainland sentiment the case would provoke.
Xenophobic groups who call themselves "localists" organized rallies to condemn Siu and his grandmother as well as anyone helping them. Some protesters carried photos of the boy denouncing him as a criminal.
The localists were at their ugliest when they stormed the Confucian Tai Shing Primary School in Wong Tai Sin. This is after the school principal expressed an interest in offering the boy a place after finding out he had never gone to school. Posters with the words "traitors" and "my classmate is an illegal immigrant" were plastered on the school's doors. Needless to say, students at the school were disturbed by the incident. A female pupil was seen crying and asking the localists why they were behaving in such a way.
Yes, Siu overextended his stay in Hong Kong illegally. For that, his grandmother was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting others in breach of condition of stay and granted bail. We cannot blame Siu for this: He was barely three years old when he was brought here.
On the surface this is a legal issue, but we are kidding ourselves if we think there is no racism involved.
Racism often appears in a disguised form. It frequently hides behind something. In Siu's case, the localists claimed they had great contempt for Siu because he broke the law. By the same token, a landlord can refuse to rent his or her apartment to an Indian because he claims he does not like the smell of curry. The Pakistani woman had her bank account application rejected (which is the kind of case that Chugani and York Chow were concerned with) for some other reason - perhaps alleged concerns about security and terrorism.
The EOC's position has always been that a Chinese person is incapable of discriminating against another Chinese on racial grounds. But in reality, the Chinese are capable of such conduct, and they often do it. In the past in this column, I have referred to legal authorities to support these claims.
But in an attempt to be politically correct, some people insist nothing can be termed racial regarding interactions among Chinese. In fact, ample opportunities for separatism are being created.
Therefore, to nip the racist, and therefore secessionist, tendencies of "localism" in the bud, Hong Kong should immediately revise its racial discrimination laws.
(HK Edition 06/09/2015 page12)