Thousands march over 'racist' article
Thousands of angry Filipino community leaders, migrant workers, celebrities and religious workers took to the streets yesterday demanding an unconditional apology from columnist Chip Tsao over an allegedly racist article he wrote.
The writer's previous apologies were improper and half-hearted, rally co-ordinator Eman Villanueva said.
'For us, it's just an additional insult by saying we misunderstood. We're not that stupid,' Mr Villanueva, vice-chairman of Filipino Migrant Workers' Union, said. 'Racial discrimination is not easily misunderstood. 'If it is political satire, then it should be directed at the government ... instead of domestic helpers,' Mr Villanueva, who has been a domestic worker in the city for 18 years, said.
In the article in HK Magazine, Tsao called the Philippines 'a nation of servants' and said it should not challenge Chinese claims to the Spratly Islands, which are claimed in total or in part by Beijing, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Tsao met Philippine consular officials and about 70 union and media representatives to make a face-to-face apology last week, after being harshly criticised by the Filipino community and being banned from entering the Philippines. ABS-CBN News in the Philippines reported yesterday that the government was reconsiding the ban.
'I have already done what should be done,' Tsao said yesterday. 'I have no further comment. I am not a racist.'
The march, which was also directed against general racism in the city, attracted up to 7,000 protesters, organisers said.
Red-clad marchers chanted slogans in Central and made their way to the Central Government Offices, where they presented a statement against racism to a government representative. Part of the anger was also directed against another local newspaper that claimed in February that Filipinos were carriers of the 'superbug' methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that is resistant to certain antibiotics.
'There was not sufficient data to back it up and the paper refused to apologise,' Danilo Reyes of the Asian Human Rights Commission said.
Discrimination directed at ethnic groups in Hong Kong was encouraged by government policies, the chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, Dolores Balladares, said. These included the low wage of domestic helpers, who were excluded from the minimum-wage legislation, and insufficient protection of job security, she said.
