Former local deputy to the Chinese parliament David Chu has been keeping a close eye on Hong Kong politics since he retired
TONY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Sunday, 24 April, 2016, 6:27pm
David Chu Yu-lin Picture: SCMP
For fours years after David Chu Yu-lin criticised then chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying for being “an ambitious and ruthless man”, the former local deputy to the Chinese parliament has been enjoying his retirement.
He has spent time indulging in his hobbies, such as his favourite sport of paragliding, all the while keeping an eye on local politics.
He paid attention to various conflicts in Hong Kong, including the voting down of the Beijing-decreed political reform package in the Legislative Council last year, and the controversies that surrounded Leung in recent years.
But it was the recent saga triggered by a piece of left luggage belonging to the chief executive’s daughter that prompted him to break his silence and return to the political frontline.
On April 17, he made a surprise appearance at a sit-in in the Hong Kong airport, protesting how Leung allegedly exerted pressure on airport staff to deliver Leung Chung-yan’s bag from a non-restricted area to a closed-off area last month.
Leung denied the allegations, but Chu was not convinced. “I hate abuse of privilege ... I will pursue the matter until the end,” Chu vowed.
Chu and Leung have a long history, both serving in the four years up to Hong Kong’s handover in 1997 in the Preliminary Working Committee and the Preparatory Committee, which helped the Chinese government prepare for the city’s return to the mainland.
Speaking with the Post after the sit-in, Chu said the city was not short of politicians who could do a better job than Leung, should they run and win in the poll next year.
Chu also lamented what he described as a sharp decline in the average quality of pro-establishment lawmakers and activists, compared to his colleagues in the Legco from 1995 to 2004.
Chu said at that time, the Beijing-loyalist camp’s relationship with the pan-democrat lawmakers was much better than what we see nowadays.
“Today’s stalemate was basically caused by the central government’s Hong Kong and Macau policy. If Beijing’s policy is more lenient, Hong Kong’s [political scene] could be more diversified,” Chu said.
In June 2004, as a lawmaker and a local deputy to the National People’s Congress, Chu made headlines by submitting a list containing the names of a dozen democrats to senior mainland officials responsible for Hong Kong affairs, urging Beijing to issue home-return permits to them to clear the way for talks with mainland officials.
Although there was no breakthrough afterwards, Chu told the Post that it showed a Beijing loyalist can be a democrat’s friend.
“I think Beijing loyalists could be pressured if they make friends with the opposition now,” he said. “When the pro-Beijing lawmakers are toeing the official line, it’s showing how tough the central government’s stance is.”
Chu also cited the National People’s Congress’s ruling on Hong Kong electoral reform in 2014 as an example of Beijing’s stringent policy. The ruling said that while Hong Kong could elect its leader by “one man, one vote” in 2017, it must only choose from candidates endorsed by the majority of a 1,200-strong committee.
The committee was set to be dominated by Beijing loyalists, and the government’s reform package that strictly followed the ruling was voted down by the pan-democrats last June.
Worse still, Chu said the defeat exposed the pro-establishment camp’s decline in quality.
Seconds before the historic vote on the package, about 20 pro-establishment lawmakers staged a failed walkout in the mistaken belief that the vote would be suspended briefly , so that their colleague Lau Wong-fat could make it.
Although the package was set to be voted down anyway as pan-democrats denied it of a two-third majority, the fiasco embarrassed Beijing and its loyalists.
“It was a joke,” Chu said. “I know it takes time to improve quality, but I am concerned when are they starting to do so.”
Chu said he was concerned about the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the party that he used to belong, as there were questions about some of its lawmakers’ education background.
In the run-up to the chief executive poll in 2012, Chu also questioned if Leung’s arch-rival and the city’s former No.2, Henry Tang Ying-yen, had lied about his education. A spokesman from Tang’s election office denied the allegations.
Yet, compared to the big guns in the pro-Beijing camp, the 72-year-old said he was more disturbed by the new pro-government groups that emerged in recent years.
On Monday, RTHK’s radio interview with Chu and Patrick Ko Tat-pun, convenor of the Voice of Loving Hong Kong group, descended into chaos after Ko argued that even if Leung did exert pressure on airport staff, “it was not an abuse of power because ‘abuse’ implies a repeated act”.
To that Chu countered: “Your values are appalling. You say you love your country, so please show some quality or you are insulting the patriots.” Ko did not respond to the allegation.
In the interview with the Post, Chu suggested that a Beijing loyalist has to show that he “loves the country and loves Hong Kong” with action and sound arguments, and there were at least two incidents in his political career that showed it.
Since the 1990s, Chu has been regarded as an outspoken critic of the British colonial government and a staunch supporter of Beijing.
In 1992, Chu made a name for himself, as a Beijing-appointed Hong Kong Affairs Advisor, by opposing then governor Chris Patten’s electoral reform package for the 1994-1995 elections. Beijing lashed out the last governor’s proposal to give more than a million electors a vote in nine new functional constituencies, accusing him of breaching the Basic Law and previous Sino-British agreements.
Then in 2003, Chu, as a NPC deputy, was among 10 activists who joined forces and tried to land and proclaim Chinese sovereignty over the disputed Diaoyu islands.
Chu was about to swim 200 metres onto the islets when the plan was stopped as their protest ship was repeatedly rammed by Japanese coastguard vessels.
“It was one of the most memorable moments in my life,” Chu recalled. “There was an aerial photo showing me at the bow, with two Japanese military vessels on both sides of the ship. It was like the scene in Titanic,” referring to the 1997 Hollywood film.
Chu initially vowed to land on Diaoyu islands by air, as his love for paragliding earned him the nickname “Flying Chu”.
The plan was abandoned, but Chu still enjoys the sport as well as shooting.
“I am the oldest paraglider in China, and I love to do it in Nepal as there are some extraordinary currents in the Himalayas. I will take part in an Australian competition in June,” he said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1938221/politics-and-paragliding-ex-hong-kong-lawmaker-david-chu
