Just Saying | Hong Kong’s education minister needs to man up ... and maybe get a moustache
Yonden Lhatoo says Eddie Ng is responsible for the most serious infringement of press freedom in recent years because of his own insecurity
Poor Eddie Ng Hak-kim. Will someone please give Hong Kong’s education minister a hug? Looks like he really needs it.
In his latest faux pas, hapless Ng complained about feeling “threatened” and “unsafe” when he was being stalked paparazzi-style – in broad daylight, in full public view, in the safest city in the world – by two reporters from a local Chinese newspaper.
So instead of dialling 999 or alerting the nearest beat cop, he pulled rank as a policy secretary to get the Security Bureau directly involved in this farce.
To cut a long, ridiculous story short, Ng had the two detained and questioned for over an hour by police, even after they had identified themselves with their press cards. And, in the process, he’s stirred up a new hornet’s nest about privilege and press freedom.
The newspaper in question said its reporters had been tailing the education chief day and night since December 18, as he was the official in the hot seat handling – or mishandling – the controversy over excessive drilling of students under the unpopular Territory-wide System Assessment.