Public Eye | They can dish it out but Democrats can't take it
Do unto others as you would have them do to you. That's in the Bible. In case the Democratic Party doesn't understand what it means, let's put it more simply: don't treat others in a way you wouldn't like to be treated. Has the Democratic Party been nice to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying? You know the answer to that. But now the party is in a huff because Leung has ordered top officials to boycott its 20th anniversary bash. Democrats say the snub will worsen already icy relations with the Leung administration. Really? Why didn't they invite Leung too if they want warmer relations? Why only invite selected ministers, snubbing those they dislike? Why make thousands of rolls of toilet paper featuring Leung's face to sell at the Lunar New Year fair? Aside from it being childish, is that any way to treat others if you want to be treated nice in return? Why boycott Leung's policy speech by staging a clownish walkout carrying yellow umbrellas? The Democratic Party did all that and now it's making a big moral deal of Leung ordering officials to boycott their bash. And, by the way, the anniversary dinner is partly to raise money to bring about the downfall of the Leung administration.
If our policymakers won't listen to the people, will they at least listen to a judge, whose job it is to uphold the law impartially? Parallel-goods traders - most of them mainlanders - have made life hell for Hongkongers, especially in border towns. Public Eye, among others, has warned countless times that this has lit the fuse on a time bomb. While sentencing a mainlander at Fanling Court last week, even Principal Magistrate Bernadette Woo Huey Fang said the flood of illegal traders had spiralled out of control. Can our policymakers not see that Sunday's clashes in Tuen Mun - when police used pepper spray on protesters opposed to the mainland influx - and recent arson cases targeting suppliers of parallel-goods traders were signs of bigger explosions to come? The parallel-goods traders combined with mainland day-trippers buying daily necessities have driven up prices in border towns. Residents pay double even for breakfast in a cha chaan teng. They have to compete with mainlanders for milk formula, diapers and even toilet paper and face endless queues for buses and MTR trains. Tourism Board figures show 47.25 million, or 77 per cent, of the city's visitors last year were mainlanders, most of them day-trippers. They are grocery shoppers, not tourists. Will policymakers not wake up until the bomb goes off?