Glutter’s Hong Kong
Allan Zeman, the guy who owns large parts of Lan Kwai Fong, the bar and club area in Central, went on TV last night to say he was “concerned” at the image that the quest of democracy was giving to his friends in the US “some of which are quite powerful”, as they have been calling him on the phone asking what is going on and that, the image of Hong Kong was being soiled and people will no longer want to invest.
What I don’t understand is who is this rich guy who owns a bunch of club and restaurants think he is? I mean his claim to fame and money is providing a place for people to get massively drunk, take illicit drugs and pick up random people to have sex with until 5 in the morning. He also provides land and space for restaurateurs to feed middle to upper class folks food that would probably precipitated heart attacks if frequented too much.
And most of all what they hell is wrong with ATV news for interviewing him in the first place? Then have a shot of the nice, overly made up news anchor nod while she takes notes without asking a single difficult question to the man, ie. “Who are your “powerful” friends exactly, coz we don’t have your phone book and don’t know who they could possibly be?” and “If they have something to say, why don’t they get on TV and say it themselves?”
The state of the English media in Hong Kong, I tell ya.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 
YAN, THIS MAY BE LONG. BUT YOUR READERS SHOULD HEAR HONGKONG IN ITS WORST SHAPE WITH THE WORST COMBINATION IT CAN EVER GET TO: CHINESE’S SELFISHNESS (I’M CHINESE THOUGH) + COMMUNIST PATRIARCHISM + CAPITALIST GREED FOR MONEY. LET’S START WITH A LITTLE BACKGROUND ABOUT ALLAN ZEMAN:
Zeman’s Lan Kwai Fong Group has also recently opened California, BACI and Tokio Joe’s restaurants in SHANGHAI. He is also a director of the Algo Group, a large publicly traded fashion conglomerate in Canada and the United States (Think: Which country is the biggest garment exporter and his biggest business partner?).
Zeman has been appointed by the Hong Kong government as a member of the Tourism Strategy Group (TSG) for the Hong Kong Tourism Commission, the International Events Fund (IEF) Steering Committee for the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Cultural and Heritage Commission (CHC) and the U.R.A. (Urban Renewal Authority). Also he is appointed as a member of the Services Promotion Strategy Group (SPSG) chaired by the Financial Secretary. He is also on the Board of HK Arts Festival and HK Community Chest. The Chief Executive has appointed Allan as a JP (Justice of the Peace) on 1st July, 2001. He is as well a long-standing member of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
So will you rock the boat if you were Zeman. Now you know why he says so int he interview.
Following is the enlightenment:
1. New World Development’s Henry Cheng hailed the NPCSC’s decision as appropriate and timely and believed that it would help resolve the arguments over HK’s constitutional development + clear the doubts so that HK’s political reform could proceed, he added. He told reporters that the introduction of general election in HK would lead to the emergence of welfarism. He thought (but did he think?) letting the general public earn more money was the best way to dispel people’s dissatisfaction (hello?).
2. CS Donald Tsang said that the NPCSC’s decision had allowed HK to seek stable changes to HK’s political system and make the electoral methods in the 2007 and 2008 elections more open and democratic. He also said HK’s high degree of autonomy had not been undermined whatsoever since 1997, adding that society had become more open and freer. His remarks are believed to make in response to former CS Anson Chan’s adverse comments about the NPCSC’s decision.
3. Secretary of Justice Elsie Leung wrote to Legco president Rita Fan forewarning her over Martin Lee’s application to propose a motion amendment in the Legco meeting next Wednesday to “accuse” the NPCSC of abusing its power in ruling out universal suffrage for the CE election in 2007 and the Legco elections in 2008. She wrote that it was inappropriate for the Legco to challenge the ruling of the NPCSC.
4. Hopewell Holdings’ Gordon Wu said the NPCSC’s decision was good news as it would help resolve the disputes in society over HK’s constitutional development. He said the community should not get entangled in the fight for the introduction of universal suffrage in 2007 or 2012, and lied that the NPCSC had opened the door for amendments to the electoral methods in 2007 and 2008.
5. Hang Lung Properties’ Ronnie Chan blamed the pro-democracy camp for resorting to radical means in the fight for democracy. Both CMA’s Chan Wing-kee and Federation of HK Hotel Owners chairman Lui Che-woo warned that public rallies would do no good to HK. Chan said the pro-democracy camp should be held fully responsible for bringing the relationship between the Central Government and HK people to a stalemate over the constitutional development issue. He said radical means, such as taking to the streets, would only make the Central Government scale down the high degree of autonomy granted to HK.
6. Shun Tak Holdings’ Stanley Ho proposed enlarging the Election Committee from 800 to 1,600 members and increasing the number of functional constituency seats in order to boost the representation of the business and the real estate sectors in Legco.
7. New World Development’s Cheng Yu-tung said the decision was a correct one as HK’s present political environment was not sufficiently ripe for universal suffrage to be introduced in the 2007 and 2008 elections.
8. Raymond Or of the HSBC hailed the NPCSC’s decision as cautious and pragmatic, believing that it would not adversely affect the investment environment.
9. Cheung Kong Holdings chairman Li Ka-shing hoped HK people would calm down and analyse matters rationally. Saying that the Mainland loved HK the way HK people did, he said both shared the wish to maintain HK’s stability and prosperity.
10. HK General Chamber of Commerce chairman Anthony Nightingale said the Chamber welcomed the NPCSC’s decision that changes were allowed in the electoral system
11. The British Chamber of Commerce in HK’s Christopher Hammerbeck welcomed the NPCSC’s decision.
12. The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was of the view that the NPCSC’s decision had been in tune with the CPG’s stance to maintain HK’s stability and prosperity.
13. The Chinese Manufacturers’ Association said the NPCSC’s decision was a result of wide consultations over the issue.
14. The Federation of HK Industries’ Andrew Leung said the decision had kick-started HK’s constitutional development.
15. Real Estate Developers Association of HK chairman Stanley Ho said the NPCSC’s decision was as expected. Citing the example of the recent Taiwan election, he said universal suffrage might not guarantee success for governance. He also asked HK people to learn from Macao where stability and prosperity were maintained with a CE elected by 300 members who loved the SAR and the country.
16. Hang Lung Group chairman Ronnie Chan said he supported the NPCSC’s decision because it was better to make things clear earlier. Saying that a harmonious and stable society was imperative, he called on HK people not to polarise themselves from the business sector and urged them to accept the decision.
17. Li & Fung’s chairman Victor Fung supported the NPCSC’s conclusion and analysis, saying that any amendments to HK’s political system should be in line with the BL. He added that HK should concentrate its efforts on the economy and improvement of people’s livelihood.
18. While HSBC’s Shiu Ko-ming said the NPCSC’s decision would not affect HK’s business environment and investors’ sentiments, Swire Pacific chairman James Hughes-Hallett believed that the decision would help clear the doubts among the community over constitutional development.
19. CPPCC local delegate Daniel Fung (tipped to be the next SJ) described the decision as a creative beginning and said that HK could strive to work out a new blueprint on democratic development within the framework laid down by the Standing Committee.
20. Shui On Group’s boss Vincent Lo told Hongkong people to leave Hong Kong if they don’t like the ways things (NPCSC’s decision) are fixed. He teased that Hong Kong people “are punished with the stick coz they don’t take the carrot”. Vincent Lo is the father of Shanghai’s Xintiandi, just as what Zeman is to LKF.
THEY ARE SPEAKING FROM A WHOLE NEW SYSTEM OF LOGIC. I’D BETTER CHANGE THE WAY HOW I SEE THINGS WORK IN HK OR I DOUBT HOW I CAN EVER SURVIVE. GOSH! GIVE ME ONE COGENT REASON THAT WE SHOULD NOT GIVE UP.
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BTW did you expect any of those people who say anything otherwise? I mean really… It’s like… so what’s new? I mean, we knew that when we started. Things haven’t changed from their end. And the weird thing is, they are betting China and the CCP survives, I am not. Hey my great grandfather was a mandarin, he had shitloads of land and business in the US and China. You know what? Qing dynasty went bye bye, and the communist came.
Yan
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And he couldn’t go back to the US because his nephew stole all his money and then put money on his head. I am not saying that I don’t feel bad for the guy, he is my ancestor and all, but things change in ways that are unexpected. Look at South Africa. I mean if we listed all the people who didn’t want that to fall and that country to have full democracy, it would be a longer longer longer list than Hong Kong. And that fell too.
Yan
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“16. Hang Lung Group chairman Ronnie Chan said he supported the NPCSC’s decision because it was better to make things clear earlier. Saying that a harmonious and stable society was imperative, he called on HK people not to polarise themselves from the business sector and urged them to accept the decision.”
Uh huh.
You WILL be harmonious.
You WILL be stable.
That’s an order.
You WILL accept the business sector’s decision. (Or you will be cut off – from all “right thinking” People, and the means to improve your livelihood, and increase your earning power, and buy the good things in life for your family…)
“17. Li & Fung’s chairman Victor Fung supported the NPCSC’s conclusion and analysis, saying that any amendments to HK’s political system should be in line with the BL. He added that HK should concentrate its efforts on the economy and improvement of people’s livelihood.”
So. Money equals happiness. Individual autonomy does not enter into these equations?
Of what value is a single Life? The pursuit of happiness has no meaning aside from work and paychecks? What is self government?
Democracy is, after all, often messy and most dischordant. Not harmonious at all.
And, after all, a slave economy IS much more harmonious – for the slaveholders, prison guards, sweatshop managers, and major corporate shareholders.
We should thank Ronnie Chan and Victor Fung for making things this clear, this early.
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We should not “polarise themselves from the business sector”
Hello? I thought they polarised themselves from us by not providing adequet health care, refusal of implementing a minimun wage, family leave and other such things.
Hong Kong has the HIGHEST disparity of income in the world. We’re already polarized, i thought one person one vote would actually level the playing field somewhat. We aren’t a “slave” economy, but if you walked into a sweatshop in China, we probably would have a hard time finding out exactly what is the difference.
So harmonious. I could probably impromptually burst out into singing the “Great sun is rising over the East” right now.
Yan
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My suggestion is to have parallel elections in 2007 and 2008 to elect a shadow government by voluntary voting. just to show HKers are not immature and can figure out how to use the voting machinery. Aren’t people in HK embarassed by being slandered as immature?
It looks to me like HK has been suckered by BJ and the so called Hong Kong elite. The so called elite, such as Ho,Tung and Ronnie Chan are better called prostitutes for the CCP.
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i dont understand,didnt you all know and realise the dreamworld you lived in under british lease,thats lease not rule!what did you think would happen when china regained its economic rudder?did you forget who your masters are?
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I thought of a few different replys. I could engage you on many different levels, one the intrinsic problems of having colonial masters, the second how some of us believe in reform, and many have not only gone to prison and have died for the cause in China, and what you say is completely disrespectful to those who have. Thirdly, we don’t live in a dream world, we are well aware of the problems of living under a totaliarian state. Some of us, of course believe that if people work towards it, things can change, history of course in on our side. Then I realized I don’t need to engage anyone who will piss on people like the students of Tiananmen Square, and instead of helping or encouraging the right cause, feel the need to be sacastic, and tell us that we should apreciate being ruled by others. Your comment belies a lot of problematic thought process. And I am not the kind of person who could be bothered to change your mind. Think as you will, but it’s not particularly acknowledge.
Yan
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And no I don’t feel embarressed by being called “Immature” much like when you’re in an argument with someone, and suddenly it turns personal, and as they feel like they lose ground, they will use words like, “Immature” and you look at the person, and brush it off because it denotes their own problems.
What I do feel is an embarressment FOR the people who say that, because what they can’t see is they are advertizing a patronising, paternalistic, most probably colonizing perspective with a giant neon sign, and feel even more embarressed people out there in the world actually buy into it, and listen to a few who say those words. It’s like dealing with racists. They may say a lot of stuff that’s insulting, but it’s not point in dealing with them head on because simply why bother?
I mean, were blacks embarressed that white people of south africa thought them as second class citizens, and would not allow them to function as human beings? If they did, I would say they shouldn’t. There are plenty of people in the world who see them for what they are, and those who don’t are simply stupid.
Concentrate on the grander issues (interesting idea about the shadow government, shows an unconventional thought process, which I never would have thought about!) and not sweat the smaller things, which is big business and CCP are in bed together as you say.
Yan
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Oh, although not embarressed but highly insulted!
Yan
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That Allan Zeman, I’ve got no time for him, never have done. The bloke’s a waste of space. I broadly agree with your above comments re his dubious “contribution” to Hong Kong over the years.
From where I’m sitting, the guy has made an absolute killing out of the place.
I recently heard him say that, apart from his pet project to re-do Ocean Park, making a big expansion into China will be his next plan.
Maybe this China expansion plan can be more than loosely connected with his recent dumb-@ss comments re Hong Kong.
Off topic: Yan, I hear Typepad was briefly accessable in the mainland yesterday but was re-blocked today.
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I think universal suferage would be a mute point with most of us, if Tung was so completely hopeless. If we were all as well off as we were in the mid 90’s most of us wouldn’t care who was premier.
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Draper,
Armed revolt didn’t work for the IRA, and N. Ireland is still under British rule.
Takes little imagination to conceive of China’s response to HK declaring independence in an armed revolution. I suspect blood would run in the streets.
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Tom: Luckily we’re too pragmatic to ever get violent. It’s not our way.. very luckily, I say.
Draper: Cool.
Martyn: You can actually say “Ass” on my blog. As I liberally use the word “Fuck” on my entries, to the chargin of my mother, my cousins, and just about way too many people who have asked me to reconsider. I can’t help but talk like a sailor, coz I worked in diveshops in the carribean.
Yan
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