More political worries prompted by a spate of legal decisions this week

At first glance, all looks well -- but look closer and you'll see 

that scorch marks from fiery past battles 

remain visible on this pedestrian overpass

 

Protest stickers found on the back of bus seats 

as recently as this week

 

A friend who I was due to have lunch with messaged me yesterday evening to ask if I wanted to postpone our meetup on account of lots of rain being forecast this week.  I had to laugh when seeing her query because, of all the things that get me worried in Hong Kong, the weather is often the least of it.  (And yes, it's true enough that I've been known to venture outdoors when Typhoon Signal Number 8 has been raised!)      

This same friend also is one of those people who, when Hong Kong's daily new Wuhan coronavirus cases look on the high side, will cut down on her socializing and stay at home for days on end.  So it's a sign of her confidence that Hong Kong's third coronavirus wave really has ebbed that she agreed to meet up for lunch in the first place.  (For the record: Hong Kong passed the 5,000 mark in terms of total number of Wuhan coronavirus cases today but it's noteworthy that the majority of today's 13 new cases are imported ones and, also, that there were just 3 new cases reported for yesterday.)

In another sign that the third wave of the coronavirus has ceased to cause people great worry, a number of entertainment venues, including bars, were allowed to reopen yesterday.  Lan Kwai Fong reportedly wasn't as crowded as might have been expected, because of the intermittent rain that can seem like a big deal for many Hong Kongers!  Given the circumstances though, this might not be a bad thing for Hong Kong as a whole -- and, frankly, I think it'd be irresponsible of the government to allow bars to operate to 6am (like one idiot pro-Beijing lawmaker has suggested)!

 

If truth be told though, my greatest worries this week have been political in nature.  For while there haven't been any recent political arrests of note in recent days, I've been reading reports of the verdicts delivered in cases involving political figures and anti-extradition bill protestors -- and a good number of them have proved pretty troubling individually, and plenty troubling when looked at collectively. 

 

It's bad enough when People Power's vice chair, Tam Tak-chi, gets denied bail when he's only charged for saying things (as opposed to, say, committing physical violence against other people).  But on the very same day that he was denied bail, a man who admitted to having stabbed veteran pro-democrat "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung with a metal chisel was let out on bail (by a judge who, just last month, sent a pro-democracy protestor to jail for having been found to be in possession of cable ties)!   

 

That Thursday also saw a 15-year-old having his probationary sentence for pleading guilty to arson and possessing materials with intent to damage property in May changed to six months in a detention center, during which he will undergo hard physical labour and discipline similar to a prison, after the Department of Justice won a review of the case.  In addition, the same Department of Justice announced that same day that it will be lodging an appeal against the acquittal of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai this past September 3rd in a case that had seen a pro-Beijing newspaper's reporter claim that he had been threatened by the media mogul.  And if all this wasn't enough, that same day also saw a construction worker being the first person found guilty of rioting in connection with last year's extradition bill protests.   

 

To be sure, things haven't all gone the government's way in the courts.  (Otherwise, I'd truly despair.)  Wednesday saw the acquittal of a man and a woman charged with attacking police officers outside Tai Wai MTR station last September statements given by the three police officers were found to be "obviously inconsistent with video footage of the incident" and the cops were deemed by the magistrate to have used "unnecessary" force against the arrested duo.  And Thursday also did see a judge determine that Hong Kong police must produce warrant cards to identify themselves as police officers in a case involving a social worker accused of obstructing the cops when she asked them to produce identification proving that they were indeed officers of the law!      

 

Earlier this week, lawyer-author Antony Dapiran was prompted to Tweet the following query: "How many more of these cases need to collapse before the DoJ stops wasting time and resources and public money prosecuting the thousands of arrests made last year on flimsy grounds...?"  Unfortunately, because it's not their money per se (but that of tax payers and such) that they're wasting, I don't think that these uncalled for prosecutions are going to be stopping anytime soon.

 

In what can amount to be a war of attrition and major testing of intelligent people's patience and tolerance, there sadly will be individuals who decide that they don't want to put up with all this anymore.  Thus it was that yesterday saw the Hong Kong government announce that Australian judge Justice James Spigelman has resigned from Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal and a warning from legal sector Legislative Councillor Dennis Kwok that more foreign non-permanent judges may resign from Hong Kong's courts in the near future because of concerns they have with the security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing.  (Put another way: confidence is waning in the true impartiality of Hong Kong's judiciary.)     

 

Against the odds though, there still are people within the system who are seeing that "rule of law" rather than "rule by law" continues to be practiced.  Thus it was that the Court of Final Appeal rejected pro-Beijing politician Rebecca Chan's appeal to hold on to her Legislative Council seat -- and, in doing so, effectively upheld a lower court’s ruling that she was not a duly elected lawmaker.

 

Seeing her efforts to hold on to that seat makes me all the more convinced that the pan-democrats would be walking into a trap if they were to voluntarily vacate hard-won Legislative Council seats to protest the government's postponement of the Legislative Council election and extension of the present Legislative Council term.  This is something that remains in the air, and something that is in the democratic camp's hands.  I just fervently hope that when the time comes to make the decision, they will act wisely and pragmatically (rather than let emotion and pure idealism prevail).