Facebook is not for everyone, but we have to admit it does throw up some entertaining moments. Readers will recall that after C.Y. Leung was elected chief executive, there was considerable speculation about who would be made a minister or appointed to Exco. Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee was the focus of much of this speculation. However, she missed out when the ministers were appointed on June 28 and then again when the non-official members to Exco were announced the next day. One appointment that apparently rankled with her was Starry Lee Wai-king, vice-chairwoman of the DAB.
Later that day, she was involved in an exchange on somebody's Facebook wall, which has been republished on Facebook since Ip's recent elevation to Exco. Ip was evidently feeling somewhat edgy on the evening of June 29, and the first comment in the exchange says: "It's like some TV network; you become a star if you are backed by a powerful producer." Then Shakespeare: "Some are born great; some achieve greatness; some have greatness thrust upon them."
Then Paul Zimmerman chips in with "Regina, darling don't put sour grapes on Facebook!!" Ip retorts: "Paul Zimmerman, who are you to patronise me? I am voicing the truth! Isn't it true that some have greatness thrust upon them? Who are you to lecture me?" For good measure, she follows up with "And don't you ever 'darling' me. That makes my hair stand up!!!" There's an intervention by someone else, and Ip replies: "But I cannot stand Zimmerman 'darling' me. Really this sort of patronising remark really makes me sick. Reminds me of the ugly colonial era." Zimmerman and Ip can't be described as close.
Zimmerman defeated a candidate supported by Ip for the Southern District Council in 2010. In a rather petulant piece in the South China Morning Post, she attributed the victory of the "gweilo" to the desire on the part of the district's large expatriate community to support "one of their own kind".