The territory risks losing some of its international flavor because of
racism
For the first time since the
handover 15 years ago, Hong Kong has appointed a non-ethnic Chinese woman to
the police force. That the recruitment of Heina Rizwan Mohammad has been so
newsworthy is evidence of just how biased Hong Kong officialdom is against the
tens of thousands of ethnic minority people who were born in the territory and
are qualified to fill posts in the police and other disciplined services.
Actual practices in Hong Kong –
with Asians being the main sufferers – make a mockery of the claim to be
“Asia’s World City.” They could lead before long to the marginalization of Hong
Kong as an international city. Its attempts to make itself “more Chinese”
merely point up the fact that it cannot compete with Shanghai as China’s major
commercial and international hub, meanwhile losing some of the international
flavor which has made in attractive for decades to Southeast Asians in
particular but also south Asians who in colonial times had been widely employed
in government.
Hong Kong is also about to have a
course of “National Education” foisted on its schools. There is strong public
opposition to this plan, which many see as a means of glorifying the Communist
Party in particular as well as giving a more “patriotic” flavor to the teaching
of history and current affairs in particular. What the minorities are supposed
to make of the Chinese nationalism-centric curriculum and textbooks being
proposed for this exercise is not explained.
Hong Kong is part of China and 90
percent of its residents are ethnically Chinese. But to deny full participation
of the minorities – the largest ones being of Indian, Pakistani and Nepali
descent – is to deny its past and what should be its future as the most
multi-racial part of China.
Official and media glorification
of the local activists who landed on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and almost
continuous official vilification of the Philippines also do no good to a city
which thrives on international commerce and presents itself as an Asian meeting
place. Although it is not supposed to dabble in foreign affairs, Hong Kong’s
leaders seem incapable of resisting the temptation to make patriotic gestures
and act as though the city’s chief executive was the equal of the Philippine
president.
Nor is ethnocentrism confined to
officialdom and would-be populist politicians. The “Asian studies” departments
of the universities are largely focused on China, not the rest of Asia – the
exception being City University which otherwise ranks low in the university
pecking order but is strong in southeast Asian studies.
Just how unwanted non-Chinese can
be made to feel is currently being illustrated by the campaign for the
Legislative Council elections on September 9. The pitch of one candidate for
the Kowloon West constituency is to demand that the territory’s 300,000
domestic helpers be deprived of days off on statutory holidays which are
Chinese festivals because of the inconvenience to their employers. The
candidate, running as an independent, was formerly director of Hong Kong’s
richest charity, the Po Leung Kuk! Kowloon West has a large non-Chinese
population, mostly of south Asian origin, but as some candidates only send
electoral material in Chinese not English, also an official language.
The helpers are almost all from
Southeast Asia – mainly Indonesia and the Philippines – and are widely
exploited because of the failure of officials to enforce laws on wages and
living conditions. The growth in the number of helpers relative to the total
population indicates how reliant the society has become on them as a source of
cheap labor. But by the same token it has encouraged lower middle income
households to employ “inferior” people whom they can kick around. (Only brown
Asians qualify as helpers).
These attitudes in turn aggravate
the problems of the locally-born brown Asians almost regardless of their
fluency in Cantonese or general level of education.
The race basis on Hong Kong
official identity cards predates the handover. It was first enshrined in a British
policy of putting three stars on the permanent identity cards of those deemed
Chinese citizens by virtue of their ethnicity rather than place of birth. Now,
in theory non-ethnic-Chinese can get Chinese (Hong Kong) passports. But it is
difficult – unless you happen to be a high-profile person. To succeed,
applicants must also in advance give up any other nationality or right of
abode. That may seem reasonable – except that the same principles are never
applied to the hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents who also own the
passport or right of abode in the likes of Canada, Australia, the US and
Malaysia.
Hong Kong now has a law against
overt racial discrimination, and an Equal Opportunities Commission which is
supposed to police it. The record of enforcement is weak and would be weaker
still but for a local NGO, Unison, which has been effective in drawing
attention to some cases – including that in Kowloon West. Indeed there are
grounds for some optimism that the position of minorities will improve. Just as
there has been reaction against attempts to impose nationalistic ideas and to
forced integration with the mainland, so there is also a growing recognition
that the minorities are very much part of Hong Kong’s separate and special
identity. It is also one to which Beijing cannot publicly object – however
distasteful it finds letting brown and white skins take part in government.
Even the recent Olympic games
provided a fine example of official racism at work. Although Hong Kong is
allowed separate representation at the games, only Chinese passport-holders
needed apply. So the Hong Kong team had some relatively recent arrivals from
the mainland but not a single non-ethnic Chinese face despite some being
eminently qualified.
Hong Kong has since been witness
to high-profile visits by China team medal winners in the name of nationalism
even though some of these competed against Hong Kong’s own athletes. Given that
the International Olympic Committee cares far more about money than the
non-nationalistic, non-racists ethics it is supposed to promote none of this
may be surprising. However this particular form of apartheid does have the IOC
stamp of approval as well as that of Hong Kong officialdom.
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