The Heung Yee Kuk yesterday called on villagers to use delaying tactics in the face of an impending crackdown on illegal housing structures - after leading a mock funeral for the development secretary.
Around 1,000 residents and rural leaders, assisted by a monk, kicked and burned a paper coffin bearing Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's surname and a paper doll resembling her outside kuk headquarters in Sha Tin.
'Carrie Lam has bypassed the kuk ... She is enforcing [the crackdown] as a fait accompli,' said Leung Fuk-yuen, a rally organiser.
They also set fire to Development Bureau leaflets that were sent to all New Territories villagers on November 18, bearing details of the government's plan to remove unauthorised structures on their houses.
After the protest, in which residents also criticised kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat as being weak in negotiating with the secretary, the powerful rural affairs body held a meeting at which members proposed taking 'more strategic action'.
Alfred Lam Kwok-cheong, a lawyer and a member of the kuk's executive committee, said residents should wait for the current administration's tenure to expire in six months and then start talks with the new government. 'What we need is time,' he said, adding villagers should ignore any warning letters from the Buildings Department.
He said villagers who receive removal orders from the department could also take their cases to the Building Appeal Tribunal, in which hearings could drag on for six months or more. 'At least you buy time and let chairman [Lau] deal with the next administration,' he said.