The development chief's call to end the controversial small-house policy has sparked a debate in which indigenous villagers accused Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor of stirring up a hornets' nest.
SCMP, June 15
Let us forget for the moment that the small-house policy is not to be found anywhere in the Basic Law and is not actually a right, but an interim measure adopted in 1972 ahead of what was hoped would be a more long-term policy on New Territories housing.
Let us ignore the fact that it is a blatantly sexist measure. It gives men property rights, which it refuses to women. How a government so conscious of doing the right thing in line with accepted political fashion could still support such a practice must remain a mystery.
Let us take no notice of how this supposed right, the ding uk, has become a way for emigrants long gone from Hong Kong's shores to rake in easy cash from homes that can be erected in their names in their supposed native villages and then rented out to non-villagers, often expatriates.
Let us overlook, increasingly hard though it may be, that this policy has made an unsightly, reeking, dank mess of large swathes of the New Territories. Let us disregard all this because we know that none of this will really weigh much with our government when set in the balance against the never-ending whinges of the New Territories village lobby, the Heung Yee Kuk.
It is undoubtedly true that indigenous male villagers traditionally built homes for themselves in their native villages. The kuk always hammers away at this point in talks with the government and we shall just have to accept that some concession must be made to it.