Waiting for Uncle Fat: Was Hong Kong lawmaker really to blame for Legco walkout?
There are questions about whether Lau Wong-fat was the real reason why so many lawmakers walked out, or whether he just took the blame
Overnight, the whole "Waiting for Uncle Fat" controversy has suddenly become curiouser and curiouser.
Just as the dust was settling on this increasingly unlikely reason that pro-establishment lawmakers offered to explain their bungled walkout during last week's electoral reform vote, it turns out that "Uncle Fat" - the nickname of rural patriarch Lau Wong-fat - may never have been a factor. His name never featured in an exchange of leaked WhatsApp messages among the pro-establishment lawmakers discussing how to take control of last week's historic vote.
Last Thursday, 31 pro-establishment lawmakers walked out of the chamber seconds before the vote on electoral reform was to take place. It was an attempt to force a suspension of the meeting. Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung of the pro-establishment Business and Professionals Alliance said they did so to wait for Uncle Fat to arrive and vote in a show of unity.
In the end, they failed and the package garnered an embarrassing eight votes. So was "Waiting for Uncle Fat" a big fat yarn?
That is one curious question the camp will have to answer.
But the WhatsApp messages show not only that Lau did not feature in the exchange but he also did not mind being named as the reason for the blunder - or so it would appear until another turn of events on Wednesday.
Late that evening, his son, Kenneth Lau Ip-keung, issued a statement to say that his father was not quitting Legco and that his health was improving.