Just in case you thought it had been a while since the last racist/sexist/elitist comment from a Hong Kong public official, here’s a fresh one.
In November last year, LegCo President Jasper Tsang was secretly recorded making a joke about how people should send “half a dozen Africans” from the “many staying in Chung King Mansions” in order to “get people off the street” in Admiralty.
The recording, obtained exclusively by Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), was made during a private HKU event, titled “Universal Suffrage: A Review of the Proposals” and attended by hundreds.
The full quote:
“I had lunch with a number of my… schoolmates last Friday. One of them is a doctor. And he said: ‘I tell you how to get people off the street. There are many Africans staying in Chungking Mansions. You go there. Get half a dozen Africans. Tell them – look, go there. Go to Harcourt Road, you have beautiful tents there, you can go sleep there without paying any rent. Get three meals every day. Free. Tell them to go there.’ … Just a joke.”
When HKFP asked him about his comments, he responded “there was no racism intended in any remark [he] made on that occasion”.
He added that the recording was made at a “private party and members of the audience were clearly reminded that there should be no recording”.
Oh, well, that’s okay then! It was all just a misunderstanding. He didn’t mean for his comments to be recorded… or racist.
Since the event explicitly prohibited the recording or disclosure of anything the speakers said, the naughty recorder/disclosurer asked to remain unnamed.
Later in the event, Tsang also repeated an unidentified pro-democracy lawmaker’s comments about the “best-case scenario” in which the government could put an end to the Occupy protests.
The lawmaker apparently said that if a “small-scale violent incident” happened, the government would be able to impose a mandatory curfew and thus force people off the streets.
Recently, Tsang came under fire after his WhatsApp messages were leaked. He had suggested to pro-Beijing lawmakers that they delay their speeches so that pro-democracy lawmakers couldn’t control the timing of the vote.
Photo: Tsang Yok Sing via Wikimedia Commons
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