My Take | Empathy and mercy are words missing from dictionary of young localists
Lawmaker Junius Ho may be controversial, but to mock the death of his elderly mother once again shows that some in our society are bereft of common decency
The opposition used to take the moral high ground. But ever since it has been infiltrated by anti-China secessionists, various splinter groups including some university student unions have appealed to the lowest common denominator.
We had a glimpse of the ugliness when the eldest son of Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin committed suicide in September. Messages congratulating Choi were posted at the Education University. When university administrators expressed dismay and removed the messages, its student union defended such messages on the ground of free speech. Student unions from other universities joined in.
Since controversial lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu yesterday announced the passing of his mother, aged 89, some online forums catering to localist and opposition groups have been ablaze with incendiary messages for Ho.
One such group is called fkoff5mo. Its Chinese name roughly means, “Kick those wumao [pro-China trolls] to death”. The post about Ho’s mother gathered more than 200 comments in less than eight hours, almost all of them vicious, and many unprintable for this newspaper:
“Congratulations, Ho. Hope you have a day like this, every year.”
“Your mother is going to Hell for your sins.”