Just Saying | Racism is rife in Hong Kong and the Equal Opportunities Commission is a toothless hamster to tackle it
Yonden Lhatoo says ethnic minorities in the city should unite to help themselves in the face of discrimination.
The top official in charge of fighting racism and discrimination in Hong Kong is on his way out and the government has started an open recruitment exercise to replace him.
In addition to having “a strong commitment to promoting equal opportunities and building an inclusive, barrier-free and harmonious society”, the ideal candidate must possess “strong language and communication skills, including good command of Chinese and English”.
Well, that’s that then. The Chinese-language requirement means you can rule out appointing an ethnic minority candidate to the post of chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission, which could have made all the difference to tackling open racism and discrimination in this town.
Let me make this unequivocally clear: racism is alive and well in Hong Kong. Nothing much has changed since we set up the commission in 1996 to curb bigotry based on sex, disability and family status, and since it began to enforce the 2008 Race Discrimination Ordinance.