Hong Kong’s equality watchdog urged to step in after columnist attacks ‘mentally ill patients’ of pro-independence party
Democratic Party member demands pro-Beijing writer Chris Wat apologise for comments that a psychiatrist says deliver the wrong message to society
The equality watchdog has been asked to investigate the latest controversial remarks by pro-Beijing columnist Chris Wat Wing-yin after she dubbed the emergence of a pro-independence party in Hong Kong as “a revolution launched by a group of mentally ill patients”.
Announcing the formation of the Hong Kong National Party last week, convenor Chan Ho-tin said it would use whatever effective means available to push for independence.
In her commentary on the online news platform “Kin Liu”, Wat said the extensive media coverage of the party might worsen the situation of the “patients”.
Wat moved on to attack pan-democratic lawyers such as James To Kun-sun, who she said had defended young people calling for independence by saying they could not be charged for sedition because it required proof of action and their words were protected by freedom of expression.
“I have not studied law, I only know all kinds of freedoms have their bottom line,” she wrote. “It could already constitute sexual harassment if a man told his female colleague ‘Your breasts are alluring’ even if he has not taken any action.”
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She added: “A revolution of a group of mentally ill patients is already under way. I cannot see any excuse for the Department of Justice and Police Force to take no action.”
Democratic Party member Ramon Yuen Hoi-man, a Sham Shui Po district councillor, criticised Wat for labelling mentally ill patients and demanded an apology.
Yuen wrote to the Equal Opportunity Commission on Sunday demanding it investigate Wat’s remarks as he lambasted the government’s information coordinator, Andrew Fung Wai-kwong, a former Democrat turned government supporter, for sharing Wat’s article on social media.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists, Dr Chan Lap-kei, agreed Wat’s remarks were discriminatory, misleading and had delivered the wrong message to society.
“There are many kinds of mental illnesses and those who cannot exert self-control only constitute a small portion of them,” said Chan.
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He said the most worrying part was that Wat had called on the government to tackle the revolution “launched by a group of mentally ill patients”.
“We should care about the patients instead of asking the Department of Justice and police to take actions,” he said. “I’m afraid some patients with mental illnesses might be reluctant to consult a doctor if they read her article.”
It is not the first time Wat has come under fire. The columnist was described as “cold-blooded” last year after she said Hongkongers should be grateful an autistic man wrongfully accused of manslaughter spent “at most 72 hours” in detention.
