Jimmy Lai fabricated the "vote-planting" rumour
"Godfather of Black Gold Politics" Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's Apple Daily yesterday splashed a big-character headlined story accusing the pro-establishment camp of "frenzied vote-planting (vote-rigging)" for the recent District Council elections. The opposition Civic Party and Democratic Party immediately echoed in response, sending some of their members to "protest" to the Electoral Affairs Commission and demanding a thorough investigation, and so forth and so on.
Apple Daily and the opposition accused the pro-establishment organizations, such as the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), of registering groups of voters with false residential addresses to help defeat opposition candidates in some fiercely contested constituencies to win the seats. The pro-establishment camp can simply dismiss this with contempt as merely "sour grapes" farce or joke, not giving a damn to it. The pro-establishment camp won overwhelmingly in the District Council elections because they have gained voters' trust, as they have taken root in neighbourhood communities for a long time through helping citizens solve practical problems and improving living conditions, as they have always sincerely supported "one country two systems" and the SAR Government's administration in accordance with the law. For them, every vote was hard won through real effort and genuine kung fu, not by bestowing petty favours - let alone by fabricating rumours to "smear" their rivals. Their landslide victory is just and honourable – both in name and in reality.
There are cast-iron facts before voters' eyes: Jimmy Lai's long-time manipulation of politics using "black gold" with the Civic Party, Democratic Party, the League of Social Democrats, with Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun and Anson Chan Fang On Sang involved and implicated; the Civic Party's launching judicial reviews for foreign domestic helpers to seek right of abode soon after the lawsuit against the government over the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge; the internal split and dogfight in the pro-Democratic camp, etc... So did the pro-establishment camp have any need to win the elections through the back door? Did they really need to "plant" votes?
Not to mention that "vote-planting" is utterly impossible, even if votes could have been planted, they would have been "planted" by the opposition like the Civic Party for the pro-establishment camp. The pro-establishment camp's scoring a landslide victory in the District Council elections and the opposition's decisive defeat is fully in accord with the current realities in Hong Kong, given the orientation of public opinion, and with the way things have developed since Hong Kong's return to the Motherland. This was not something that could have been "created" artificially. Had the general atmosphere in society not been like this, and had the will of the people not tended to go in this direction, even if the pro-establishment camp were able to "plant gold" or "plant silver", they could never have "planted out" such a situation to enable them to secure their landslide victory to the great satisfaction of the general public.
Despite the absurdity of the "vote-planting" rumour, and despite the fact that it could hardly shake the hard won results of the pro-establishment camp, such evil deeds of Jimmy Lai's Apple Daily to wantonly distort facts and fabricate rumours must never be let off easily. Instead, it must be returned tit for tat. As Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen pointed out yesterday in answering media queries, the election system in Hong Kong is fair, open, just and with a high degree of transparency. There are also various mechanisms to deal with complaints, including the Electoral Affairs Commission and ICAC; and the police could also follow up if necessary. Every complaint will be dealt with in accordance with the law. On the surface, Apple Daily's "vote-planting" report targeted the pro-establishment camp; in reality it severely attacked and smeared the SAR Government, the whole election system and the rule of law. Under the pen of Apple Daily, Hong Kong became a "paradise for vote fraud", as if all its election laws and regulations existed in name only, as if some political parties could have "planted" a great number of voters like magicians. According to Apple Daily, "vote-planting" had been found in many constituencies including Sha Tin, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Central and Western Districts and Islands District. If this were the case, then didn't it mean that all the heads of the Electoral Affairs Commission and concerned voting stations had taken bribes or failed to do their jobs? Otherwise, how was it possible that so many non-local residents could have successfully registered under the same addresses and cast their votes - without being discovered? Was such an assertion not a serious challenge and insult to Hong Kong's election culture, clean-government efforts and dignity of the rule of law?
Apple Daily relies for its survival on fabricating rumours. Apple Daily's specialty is to resist the Central Government and make trouble in Hong Kong, which is also its very financial source. Otherwise, how could Jimmy Lai have easily given away tens of millions of dollars to "reward" the opposition? This time, with the opposition's decisive defeat in the District Council elections, perhaps Jimmy Lai feels it hard to report and explain to his boss or bosses. Without any other choice, he had to create such a "vote-planting" myth in the hope of slipping away unpunished. 22 November 2011
