CY says the poor can't vote as we need to protect the rich
After his interview on Monday with the international press Chief Executive CY Leung was widely quoted on social media as saying: "Democracy would see poorer people dominate Hong Kong."
After his interview on Monday with the international press Chief Executive CY Leung was widely quoted on social media as saying: "Democracy would see poorer people dominate Hong Kong." While he didn't actually say that, it amounted to the same. The said that Leung warned of the dangers of populism and insisted the electoral system was needed to protect minority groups. "If it's entirely a numbers game - numeric representation - then obviously you'd be talking to half the people in Hong Kong [that] earn less than US$1,800 a month," he said in reference to the median per capita wage.
"You would end up with that kind of politics and policies." God forbid that lower income groups should have a say in how Hong Kong is run lest we end up with a system that doesn't protect the tycoons. CY has either wittingly or unwittingly indicated what this demonstration is all about. People are angry and dissatisfied in Hong Kong for a wide range of reasons, which include the perception of the wealth gap, inability to find affordable housing, high cost of living relative to income and so on.
They feel that the present arrangements for electing the chief executive do not lead to the election of a leader that is interested in pursuing their interests. The job of all chief executives in Hong Kong has been to maintain the status quo, a situation that is evidently desired by the central government. Given the roots of the Communist Party, it is not a little ironic that its chosen instrument for maintaining the status quo in Hong Kong are the tycoons. They are useful since at least they cannot be accused of harbouring any destabilising hankerings for democracy.
This is one of the many intellectual, moral and political contortions that the Chinese Communist Party has had to undergo with respect to the way it manages Hong Kong. But it sends a pretty bleak message to the majority of the people: "We don't want you people running the show - this has been set up for the rich." However we are now paying the price for organising our affairs in this way.
Someone has cleverly taken an old HSBC advertising campaign and adapted it to the umbrella movement. It is a mock-up of the bank's advertising campaign "Point of View" which was introduced in 2009 and shown at airports around the world.
The original HSBC ads featured a number of images on which a single word was superimposed and were mildly thought provoking. The recently "recreative" ads, as our picture shows, show identical pictures side by side of a young woman holding an open yellow umbrella aloft. The word "patriot" is written next to one picture in both English and Chinese while "traitor" is written on the other.
As with the HSBC ads the words are simple but describe two opposite extremes. It's a novel depiction of the views on the umbrella movement, but it's also a backhanded compliment to the HSBC ad.
The row over bankers' bonuses rumbles on in Europe. The latest salvo comes from HSBC chairman, Douglas Flint, who said that European rules to cap bankers' bonuses at twice fixed pay are "a retrograde step" that go against improvements in pay structure. Speaking to the House of Lords EU Economic and Financial Affairs sub-committee he said that he hoped authorities would find a better solution, Reuters reported. "The proposals out of Europe in terms of capping the ratio of variable to fixed [pay] is a retrograde step against long-term deferral," he added. London is out of step with Europe on this and worries that if adopted it will undermine its advantage over other European financial centres.
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