ANIMADVERSION 2006 (SELECTED)

Donald Tsang and his annual policy address

In October Bowtie (Donald Tsang’s sobriquet), the Chief Executive, delivered his annual policy address which focused mainly on pollution and preschool education. Nevertheless, he also promised to fund the Hong Kong Design Centre for its brand-building efforts for Hong Kong products and the Sport Development for training potential elite athletes.

Apropos pollution, the government pledged to subsidize the replacement of old commercial diesel vehicles which do not meet the basic EU standards on emissions. Such a high-sounding scheme was considered not a boon to but a burden on the vehicle owners as they found it too prohibitive to switch to the EU IV model. To our disappointment and chagrin, Bowtie did not address the other main sources of pollution – franchised buses and the power plants. That was one of the reasons why he was criticized for lacking vision and perhaps perspicacity. He was therefore suspected of ‘transferring benefits’ to business sectors of the community.

As regards preschool education, Tsang agreed to fund kindergartens by means of a voucher system which would hopefully raise the quality of kindergarten teachers and relieve the pecuniary burden of parents. According to the scheme, parents of children aged three to six will get vouchers worth up to $13,000 per child per year to cover or defray tuition fees. It was au fond a breakthrough from the old practice of subsidizing schools directly. However, the flaw of the system is that it will not benefit parents whose children attend profit-making kindergartens or non-profit-making ones that charge more than $24,000 a year. As such, the voucher scheme looks like an educational bias. Subsequently, children’s right activists, social workers and parents criticized the government for not offering free preschool education.

Anyone who has vision and sound judgment must have noticed that Tsang intentionally glossed over the problem of minimum wage. Instead, he offered a ‘wage protection campaign’ to encourage employers to pay cleaners and security guards no less than the average market rate. This measure was a temporizing tactic and indeed a palliative and vacuity. It immediately invited condemnation from the unionists and brouhaha from the obstreperous observers at the public gallery while Mrs. R. Fan was looking daggers at the pesky crowd who were quickly manhandled and shoved off. Furthermore, the annual policy address offered no solutions to a gamut of controversial issues such as West Kowloon Cultural District project, health-care financing and goods and services tax (commonly known as GST which was not cut and dried yet by then). But on 5th December the government out of the blue announced that the proposed GST was to hang fire.


The fact that Donald Tsang stressed three vital challenges the next chief executive would face and must tackle – ‘sustaining economic development, furthering the development of a democratic political system and building a harmonious society’ - revealed covertly his ambitious stratagem of paving the way for his second term. When he was berated for lack of vision, Tsang retorted that he had decided to focus on what he could achieve in a pragmatic manner in the remaining eight months of his current term. By saying so, he tried to angle for sympathy and, to a certain extent, support from the Joe public who would not lap up his annual policy address. As a matter of fact, what Bowtie has to do is to pull his socks up. If the shoe fits, wear it, Mr. Chief Executive!


China and the Vatican

Within three days two Chinese priests, Fr. Ma and Fr. J. Liu were ordained against their wishes as bishops without the pontifical approbation on 30th April and 3rd May respectively. This was a direct challenge to the Vatican and was considered a ‘grave violation of religious freedom’ and a ‘unilateral action’ which displeased the Holy Father. Passively the Vatican responded by dispatching a delegation to Beijing in June to patch up the Sino-Vatican relations. It was agreed that no further ordinations would take place without the Pope’s blessing. Notwithstanding the June accord, another priest Fr. Wang was ordained on November 30 again without the papal approval.

It will be recalled that there are some 10 million Catholics in China divided between an ‘underground Church’ loyal to the Pope and the state-approved Church that respects the Holy See only as a spiritual figurehead, and is controlled by the Chinese Patriotic Association (CPA) with layman Liu Bainian as the Vice-President who is *compos mentis as far as religious matters are concerned. It could be conjectured that Liu was in cahoots with the central authority and has no compunction about foisting the episcopal ordination upon the priests. What he did and what he had done earned him the title the “Black Hand” or Mafia who orchestrated the ordination.

Religion has been politicized by China who wants the Vatican to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan first before a rapprochement is reached, and is determined to impose her political sovereignty and welt-macht status on the church. By ordaining illegitimately the three priests, China deliberately wrecked the existing détente with the Vatican. As a consequence, the ordained priests and the bishops who presided over the episcopal ordination will face excommunication. The desideratum at this point is a twenty-first-century concordat. Moreover, the Chinese authority should cozy up to the Vatican so as to break the deadlock.

*(Latin) in full control of one’s mind or faculties


Pope Benedict XVI and his gaffe – a lapsus lingua ?

In September Pope Benedict XVI delivered a speech at a Germany university where he had taught theology before. In questioning the concept of jihad, the Pope quoted a fourteenth-century Byzantine emperor who said that Prophet Muhammad had brought the world nothing but ‘evil and inhuman things’ and that he commanded ‘to spread by the sword the faith he preached’. Such vituperative remarks shocked the Islamic world and intensified the inveterate animus of the Muslims who accused the Holy Father of equating Islam to malfeasance and violence. Some even believed the Pontiff’s caustic comments were more devastating and traumatizing than the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Immediately a tidal wave of anti-pope and anti-Christian west movement swept across the globe. Shouting vociferously anti-pope slogans, militant Muslims attacked Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to release their outrage. ‘The matter’s rather thick’ (Macbeth). To avoid overt confrontation and a potential holy war, the Pope offered his ‘sincere regret’ (rather than a formal apology) over his faux pas with regard to his unintentional offensive vitriolic remarks on the incompatibility of faith and violence.

Despite warning against an unpredictable attempt on his life, Benedict XVI made a fence-mending trip to Turkey at the end of November as scheduled. It was a mission of reconciliation with a message of ‘dialogue and brotherhood’. To his surprise, the Pope was greeted at the airport of Ankara by the Prime Minister of Turkey who had earlier refused to meet the Pontiff, ‘pleading scheduling problems’. After a thirty-minute private talk in the VIP lounge, the Prime Minister stated that Islam was a religion of ‘love and tolerance’ while the Pontiff replied that Islam was a religion of ‘love and peace’.

Another reason for the Pope to fly to Turkey was to placate its government and to ease the tension he ‘created’ when he opposed to Turkey’s bid to join the EU. With a conciliatory gesture, he agreed to see Turkey as part of the EU. Let’s rejoice! A rapport was re-established, the hatchet buried and a seemingly imminent jihad averted. All in all, Benedict XVI’s trip was meaningful, fruitful and ended in happy denouement.


Chen Shui-bian and Taiwan

Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian (ycleft Ah-bian) suffered a diplomatic defeat when his trip to Latin America turned out to be ‘a journey to nowhere’. He had planned to refuel in San Francisco and New York en route to Paraguay and Costa Rica in May, but Washington rejected his plan. The US authorities insisted that Chen could only make refueling stops either in Hawaii or Alaska. To show his displeasure Ah-bian landed in Amsterdam for refueling purpose. Chen’s objective of ‘diplomatic breakthrough’ through ‘transit diplomacy’ did not materialize. It was believed that Beijing resolved to asphyxiate Taiwan in international affairs.

It never rains but it pours. Chen’s woes began when someone had snooped on him and his family including his son-in-law, a certain Dr. Chao, who was arrested and indicted for insider trading. Before long, Ah-bian was accused of jobbery, embezzling state special fund while his wife of accepting millions (NT currency) worth of Sogo department store vouchers. Consequently a series of anti-Chen campaign and an island-wide bus tour were organized by Shih Ming-the, former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and an ex-ally of Chen Shui-bian, to protest against Ah-bian’s financial chicanery and demand him to quit. Protestors were all dressed in red to show their anger, shouting resounding slogans ‘down with Ah-bian’ and ‘Ah-bian step down’ which echoed through Taiwan. The very second they finished chanting ‘Ah-bian step down’ in a chorus of voices calling for Chen Shui-bian to resign, simultaneously their thumbs went down most rhythmically and dramatically. Protest rallies lasted from September to October and went well into November day in, day out, and reached an unprecedented scale of febrile fervency.

In passing, Chen Shui-bian had earlier said he would step down if he was found to have used other people’s receipts to write off official expenses and shopping coupons from Sogo. Most unfortunately, local procurators discovered a large number of receipts from obscure sources and shopping vouchers from Sogo. All this could serve as corroboration of Ah-bian’s guilt and that of his family. His wife was arrested and indicted for accepting bribes while the President, enjoying ‘presidential immunity’, could not bat an eyelid about his financial shenanigan and averred he would serve out his term which will end in May 2008. Out of frustration, Shih Ming-teh initiated three recall motions to impeach and depose the President but failed to achieve the objective since the pan-blue camp was unable to obtain two-thirds majority in the legislature as required to pass. It is generally believed that Ah-bian would not quit until the ‘expiry date’. So, as far as Taiwan politics is concerned, Chen Shui-bian is a goner as his days are numbered!

The turn of events is always fickle. Ex nihilo, in November Ma Ying-jeou, the charismatic Mayor of Taipei, was found to have used false receipts to claim expenses from his special mayoral allowance. He admitted that it was his aide, not he himself, who had forged the receipts. Like Ah-bian, Ma was disinclined to resign but made a public apology.

Nonetheless, a scandal like this could tarnish Ma’s once-clean image and would further damage his credibility. His political future now rests on whether he had used any of the fund for his own personal purposes. Let’s wait and see.


Middle East and the West

The situation in Iraq is ‘bad’ as described by President George W. Bush. However, in reality, it has gone from bad to worse. Thousands of US soldiers were killed not in action but in suicide car bombing incidents. Moreover, soldiers, western and even Japanese journalists and war correspondents were kidnapped.

A minor kidnap incident could curd one’s blood and be a casus belli. In July, a cross border raid by Hezbollah militants, who kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, triggered a month-long war between Lebanon and Israel leaving much of southern Lebanon in ruins. As the war escalated, Israeli ground troops began to smash villages, towns and cities in southern Lebanon to smithereens while Hezbollah retaliated with rockets that reached deep into northern Israel. Armed conflicts between the two countries stopped when they agreed to accept a strong UN peacekeeping force to ensure and maintain peace and order in the troubled region. The Hezbollah chief regrettably said he would not have ordered the kidnap had he known it would lead to such a devastating war.

The Syria-Lebanese relations were no better and in fact began to deteriorate when the anti-Syria Prime Minister was murdered in 2005. The situation became explosive when the Industry Minister of Lebanon was assassinated in November. Syria-phobic sentiments galvanized because Syria was believed to have masterminded both assassinations.

Cause célèbre – In November Saddam Hussein, the megalomaniac and schizophrenic, was tried, convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide and sentenced to death by hanging. The chief prosecutor said the nine-judge panel was expected to rule on Hussein’s guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January 2007. Muslim Shiites and Iraqi Kurds who had suffered terribly under the mad dog’s rule ‘hailed the sentence as just’.

The situation in the Middle East is complicated, ‘grave and deteriorating’ and so volatile that Bush decided to push new talks with Israel and the Palestinians after a meeting with Tony Blair the British Premier early December. They expressed they were willing to serve as ‘honest brokers’ in the region and would come up with a ‘new strategy’ with a ‘new approach’. As the newly published ‘Iraq Study Group’s report’ called for withdrawal of most US combat troops by early 2008, talks with Iran and Syria and for a new Middle East peace effort, what is facing Britain and the US now is a face-saving withdrawal of troops with honour, dignity and national pride.