LAI YING-KIT YINGKIT.LAI@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Friday, 18 September, 2015, 1:54pm
UPDATED : Friday, 18 September, 2015, 1:54pm
A man is taken into custody by police during the 1967 riots that tore through Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A leftist who took part in Hong Kong’s 1967 riots and a former police superintendent tasked with suppressing demonstrators at the time were both upset by the removal of some details of the events from the force’s official history.
Luk Tak-sing, who was jailed for unlawful assembly during the riots, said the police force should not remove facts such as leftists “forming struggle committees”.
“History is history. Facts are facts. When something happened, it is meaningless to cover it up,” Luk told a Commercial Radio talk show today.
“When we talk about history, I think it must be based on facts. Only then we can evaluate it,” he said.
Luk is now vice-chairman of the 67 Synergy Group, an organisation of leftists who were jailed during the riots.
Passengers gaze anxiously at a parcel, suspected to be a bomb, placed on the tram tracks in Des Voeux Road Central during the 1967 riots. Photo: Chan Kiu
The police force this month amended its official version of what happened during the riots by replacing phrases like “communist militia” with “gunmen” and deleting detailed descriptions of events, such as pro-Beijing leftist mobs threatening bus and tram drivers who refused to strike.
Large chunks of text removed include: “Struggle committees were formed to foment strife against the government”; and “Bus and tram drivers were threatened, sometimes attacked if they went to work to keep Hong Kong on the move”.
Luk added the police’s history omitted some key events leading up to when the first bomb was planted in Kwun Tong during the riots, such as a labour dispute at a San Po Kong artificial flower factory. He said these events could put the riots in context but were not included.
Luk said his group would petition at Police Headquarters in Wan Chai on Sunday to express their views on the update.
Meanwhile, a former senior superintendent involved in the suppression of the riots, James Elms, said he was angry that a large chunk of details were removed. “It makes me feel that [the police] are hiding something,” he said.
Police fire tear gas during the 1967 riots. Photo: SCMP Pictures
“It is like the Japanese hiding some historical facts [about the second world war]. I feel this is very unfair to those involved,” Elms said.
Elms said he and a team of police officers escorted bus and tram drivers to work amid threats by mobs during the riots, adding the removal of those facts could hinder people’s understanding of history.
“This part could show how serious the impact the riots could cause in the community”, he said. “Because there was no MTR. The public only took buses and trams to go to school and work.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1859327/facts-are-facts-hong-kong-polices-rewritten-history-1967
