| Ignoring the Christmas tradition of generosity, Hong Kong’s government instead delivered a nasty kick in the teeth to its citizens. Days before the sacred holiday, the administration thumbed its nose at public objections and demolished the 49-year-old Star Ferry clock tower and pier in the Central District. Thus, a significant landmark vanished forever.
Protest groups intent on preserving the site had held candlelight vigils, staged hunger strikes and twice invaded the pier, temporarily delaying the destruction. Twice, misguided police forcefully removed them.
“Every bone in my body screams to join the protesters, but as a legislator I can only watch while these youngsters are forcibly removed by police. Does the government really need to take this action? They are like bullies,” said Democratic Party legislator Martin Lee.
Observed by furious protestors and by media cameras, deconstruction workers pulled apart the tower and carried away its sections. They promptly salted the public’s wounds by dumping the pieces into a landfill.
Ferries still ply Victoria Harbour using a new pier, but the replacement facility lacks the history, character and convenient location. No one seems impressed.
Why the destructive behavior? The government vows to create space for a new highway. Realistically, its smog-poisoned people need less vehicular traffic, not more. The extra excuses about contractual obligations to builders and past urban planning ring ludicous and lame.
Forty-nine years isn’t a long time compared to the millenniums of Chinese history, but Hong Kong people showed a deep emotional attachment to the Star Ferry site, and their government cared not a whit.
“I saw crowds, young people and the elderly alike, rushing to the Star Ferry Pier to take photos and preserve their memories,” said Wong Kwok-hing of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions. “The protesters went because they love Hong Kong. They fought for what they value, and the least the government can do is to listen.”
Lee’s Democratic Party colleague Lee Wing-tat accused the administration of being “too numb to recognize the value of memories, history and culture”. Although probably true, that’s not the real problem.
An earlier editorial here denounced the cowardice that prevents Hong Kong officials from standing up to Beijing to build legitimate democracy. The clock-tower saga shows an ugly side-effect: overwhelming arrogance.
Without ballot-box accountability, the chief executive, his councillors and leading officials, unwittingly or not, believe in their hearts that popular opinion lacks clout and counts for little. Along the streets and inside residential towers, public frustrations and discontent inevitably grow.
In a just society, people power would topple arrogant leaders and toss them onto history’s trash heap – maybe into the same landfill as the destroyed clock tower. Sadly, Hong Kong lacks such justice.
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