HK Special Administrative Region retreats into past

Following is the last of three articles by The Jakarta Post Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin on the handover of Hong Kong to China on June 27th.

HONG KONG (JP): Within a few hours of being established as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong retreated 10 years to 15 years into its colonial political past. It may well go even further back in time before very long. The HKSAR also sustained another old British political habit.

The sentiments of General Douglas MacArthur, the famed American proconsul in the Philippines and Japan made a comeback as the opposition, fearing further repression, got in its post- handover protests.

But the biggest disappointment on the first three days of Hong Kong's return to the motherland was the weather. On June 30th, as a deluge of rain deluged the British farewell it seemed clear that the Weather God disapproved of colonialists, as several Hong Kong Chinese put it to me. When, on July 1st, 2nd and 3rd there were even heavier downpours drenching everyone, it was noted that the Weather God was equally disapproving of the communists.

So, as the contingents of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) comprising the future PLA garrison arrived by land, sea and air punctually at 6.a.m. on July 1st, the smart new PLA uniforms were thoroughly soaked long before they reached there various destinations in 14 former British and Gurkha bases.

Twenty-one armored personnel carriers arrived on time, but this event made less impact than expected due to the awful weather. Ten ships of the PLA Navy came in from the Pearl River Estuary to the west -- from the same direction as the British Royal Navy had arrived 156 years earlier. The 10 PLA naval ships are now at a base specially built for them by the Hong Kong government at Chinese request. It is situated at Stonecutter's Island -- a former British base and no longer an island since land reclamation joined it to the Kowloon peninsula.

Altogether some 4,700 members of the PLA garrison have now arrived, together with some 400 vehicles, plus six helicopters of the PLA air force, the same number that a Royal Air Force squadron had here until it was disbanded a few weeks ago.

The adverse elements, which prompted continuous official thunderstorm, flood and landslide warnings, did not deter a sizable number of radical democrats from having a protest march on the first day of China's sovereignty, calling for an end to one-party dictatorship within China. Five thousand or so members or supporters of this group, the same group that holds candlelight vigils at Victoria Park in memory of those killed in the 1989 Beijing Massacre every June 4th. The radicals believe in fostering the democratic and patriotic movement within China itself. On July 1st they marched through Hong Kong island, from Tin Hau to Central. As has been the Hong Kong habit, a handful of police accompanied them, but the march passed off without incident.

What was remarkable about it was that so many turned out in the driving rain. One could not help wondering how many more would have turned up if the weather had been fine.

Much earlier, just after the midnight handover, the more moderate Democratic Party, led by leading lawyer Martin Lee returned to the Legislative Council building, from which they had been effectively expelled, because the first fully-elected Legislative Council (Legco), voted in 1975, was not allowed to carry on into the new era of Chinese sovereignty. Speaking from the balcony of the Legco building, the Democrats vowed that "We Shall Return" after elections are held.

This was an echo of General MacArthur's famous World War Two slogan after he was defeated in the Philippines by the Japanese. Then, MacArthur's version -- " I Shall Return" -- was often criticized in the U.S. for being too egotistical, because he should have used "we", as the Democrats did, since they do not want to be seen as a one-man crusade,

But the fact that the Democrats -- plus various other assorted democratic parties and groups -- were allowed to demonstrate in central Hong Kong so soon after the handover was in part due to the new Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa's preference for avoiding confrontation. Tung has vowed not to turn Martin Lee into a martyr. So far he has kept talking to them even though he clearly dislikes their message.

Tung was earlier sworn in, as Chief Executive of the HKSAR, at a ceremony which began at around 1.15 a.m. after the Royal yacht Britannia had slipped its moorings, and, to the tune of Rule Britannia, and accompanied by a frigate, HMS Chatham, and three patrol boats, had departed for the Philippines where Prince Charles will be paying a state visit.

Tung's oath of office was administered by Prime Minister Li Peng. But Tung himself administered the oath of office taken successively by departmental heads in the civil service, the Executive Council, the controversial provisional Legco which has been selected by China, and the top judges -- most of whom were still wearing their traditional British-style wigs.

Immediately after this ceremony, around 3 a.m, the provisional Legco was immediately convened in session -- though not at the Legco building where the Democrats were demonstrating.

In a way, this Legco session was the most significant and certainly the saddest event of the night of the handover. Many -- of all races -- shed tears for the departure of the British. Some tears should have been shed for Hong Kong's lack of political development.

Political and legislative development in Hong Kong has been excessively slow under the British, leaving Hong Kong's Legislative Council (Legco) much less advanced than, for example, the provincial assemblies of India were in 1935.

Still, since the 1995 election, debates in the Hong Kong Legco have become more spirited, it has become much more willing to question government policy and, overall, Legco has been less of a rubber stamp.

Yet, early on July 1st, as the provisional replacement Legco, selected by China, met for the first time in Hong Kong itself, all the old habits were back. The legislators passed a Reunification Bill with retrospective effect, legitimizing the bills earlier passed when it was meeting in China prior to the handover. The Reunification Bill is legally questionable but the legislators did little questioning. The provisional Legco has all the hallmarks of a rubber stamp -- just like China's parliament, the National People's Congress.

As already reported by the Jakarta Post, several of the bills passed so hurriedly curtailed Hong Kong current freedoms and rights. Essentially some notable improvements made in the last ten years were rescinded, and the bills which were passed re- enacted old colonial restrictions.

British efforts at democratic decolonization elsewhere have, of course, sometimes resulted in the contrary development of dictatorship. But this was the first time that any successor government has immediately sought to reinstate the regulations of colonial authoritarianism.

It is a unique move -- and almost certainly more such moves are on the way, adding to Hong Kong's political retrogression, along with its retrocession.

On July 2nd, the second day of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), all celebrations of the territory's reunification were cut short by a tropical storm, torrential rain and at least 65 cases of flooding.

Amidst the disruption, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) missed an opportunity to quickly improve its image in Hong Kong.

More important perhaps, there was another speedy retreat into past colonial practices by the HKSAR.

The unusually heavy rains hit home with particular severity in the New Territories. Whenever there are sustained downpours amidst Hong Kong's extremely hilly terrain, landslides are inevitable. No less than 55 minor and major landslides have been reported so far. One landslip derailed a train and disrupted rail traffic to and from the China border. Another landslide buried part of a Buddhist temple.

When some private cars were inundated by a raging stream, divers were called in to see that no one had been trapped in the underwater vehicles. Chaos extended to the heavily built-up Kowloon area as flood waters swept through the city.

So far, no deaths have been reported though it is possible that some persons may have been buried beneath some of the landslides.

Amidst all this havoc, Hong Kong's police and fire services were perfectly able to cope. But the newly-arrived 4,700-strong garrison of China's People Liberation army, navy, and air force clearly missed an opportunity to offer to undertake a little supportive civic action.

To be fair, such an offer would have carried a degree of political risk for China, in the sense that Hong Kong opinion is and remains highly sensitive to PLA interference in Hong Kong's internal affairs. The garrison's role is supposed to be for external defense only and, according to the Basic Law, it can only take action within Hong Kong when requested to do so by the HKSAR Chief Executive.

Nevertheless an offer of help in battling the floods and landslides, had it been made, could only have improved the PLA's image. The six PLA helicopters could, for example, have offered to assist the HKSAR authorities, much as the Royal Air Force helicopter squadron frequently did in the past.

There has been no indications of any such approach being made. On the one hand, the PLA detachments are only just settling in to what for them is an entirely new role: a garrison role in a territory with a very different political atmosphere to that of China.

On the other hand, there is no sign at all as yet that the PLA has learnt the importance of public relations, or that has appointed a detachment of professional public relations personnel, civilian and military, to help them in their challenging role of becoming an accepted part of the HKSAR -- thereby eliminating the deep suspicions which linger from the PLA's role in the Beijing Massacre.

Once again it's very much a case of "one country, two systems". Public relations in China, for the PLA and all organs of government, consists of telling the people what they must believe. Public relations of the Hong Kong variety, when you actually have to persuade people before they will believe anything, are virtually unknown.

When the PLA arrived on the morning of July 1st, loudspeakers owned by local leftists blared out a welcome. This incident was replayed on Beijing television as if it was the Hong Kong compatriots spontaneously welcoming the troops. Actually it was China-style "public relations", arriving in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, amidst the adverse weather conditions, the new Hong Kong elite sustained and localized another old colonial habit.

This correspondent has always had trouble understanding the seemingly peculiar British civic habit of awarding medals and honors. One curiosity in Hong Kong was the sight of the outgoing colonial government awarding the titles of companion, or member, of the British Empire (CBE and MBE) to local Hong Kong Chinese even as that selfsame empire was dissolving, as far as Hong Kong was concerned. The last investiture was held by Prince Charles and Governor Patten on June 29th, a day before the end of British rule.

Evidently, this is one aspect of the British heritage that the new Hong Kong political elite is anxious to retain. So on July 2nd many members of that elite trooped back to Government House, the former residence of Governors, for another investiture. Few of the assembled throng were strangers to Government House. Many of them had earned citations from the British.

By July 2nd the British royal emblem had been removed from the gates of Government House. Inside, all symbolic reminders of British sovereignty had disappeared, to be replaced by the insignia of China and the HKSAR.

Even before the HKSAR took office, it had been announced that a new system of awards had been created, with the highest one being the Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM). The Bauhinia is the symbolic flower of the new HKSAR. The GBM is awarded to those who, among other qualities, "showed concern about and support for, and also identified with China's, accomplishments."

Another qualification for the GBM is "fostering among the Hong Kong people a love for the Motherland". But the GBM also requires that a person should have "made an outstanding contribution to the Hong Kong community".

Eleven Chinese and one Briton had the newly-minted GBM pinned on their chest by Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, while Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen presided. As Elsie Elliot in the 1960s, the Briton had sought greater democracy for Hong Kong from recalcitrant British Governors. As Mrs. Elsie Tu in the 1990s, married to a Hong Kong Chinese, she identified with the Motherland by attacking Governor Patten precisely for introducing a little more democracy. She was roundly defeated by a Democrat in the 1995 election. Now Mrs. Elsie Tu GBM is back in China's appointed Legco.

At times during the post-colonial investiture, Qian looked a little puzzled by all the ceremony. This could have been because the proceedings, unlike the earlier handover ceremonies, were conducted in the local Cantonese dialect, and not in China's national language, Mandarin.