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Waking up one morning at her Robinson Road apartment where she has lived for more than 40 years, Cissy Chu Fok Wing-yue noticed the view across the harbour looked different. A big chunk of land protruded from near the Tsim Sha Tsui Ocean Terminal, pointing in the direction of Sheung Wan.

  She called her son, Winston, to her house and asked him what had happened.

  Winston Chu Ka-sun, solicitor and then-Town Planning Board member, went back to the board to seek an answer.

  'I almost fell off the chair when I learned of the reclamation scheme,' said Mr Chu.

  It was the first time such a project had been shown to the then-six-year Town Planning Board member. A discovery, a conversation, and a revelation prompted the mother and son to launch a two-year fight against the Government.

   It is a fight that has sapped money, time and spirits.

  'Fifty years ago, the harbour was very beautiful. The harbour between Kowloon and Hong Kong used to be very wide, filled with many cargo ships and ocean liners,' Mrs Chu recalled.

  'But it keeps shrinking, year by year, before my eyes. In the past, the Government just reclaimed a little bit here, and a little bit there. But these past two years, they have been taking big pieces.

  'The coastline and the shape of the territory has changed and the waters have become much more crowded and rough,' she said.

  Mrs Chu, now 80, laments the Government's continuous reclamation projects on Victoria Harbour.

  'Our territory has been famous for its harbour. People are coming here to see the Pearl of the Orient, not the lumps of soil, nor the towering buildings.'   In October 1994, after Mr Chu had learnt of the reclamation project, mother and son decided to act to save the harbour.

  Under the Foreshore and Seabed (Reclamations) Ordinance, reclamations of land only need the approval from the Director of Lands and the Governor before gazetting.

  'No one can object to the reclamation except those who claim legal interests on the reclamation site,' Mr Chu said.

  'But even then, the person can only claim back damages from the Executive Council, not stop the reclamation.'   So, Mr Chu tried to stop the project through other ways. He and his mother funded and set up an association, the Society for Protection of the Harbour, in December 1995 with independent legislator Christine Loh Kung-wai and the Liberal Party's Urban Councillor Jennifer Chow Kit-bing as members.

  A Mercedes Benz was given up to raise funds for the association. The $668,000 order for the new SLK Benz had to be cancelled because the money had been spent on printing posters, campaign advertising, staff employment and an expert report reviewing and suggesting alternatives to the reclamation.

  'My friends laughed at me, saying that I had thrown a Benz into the sea,' Mr Chu said.

  'What alternatives do you have? What if you see a little girl fall into the water at the pier? Some people would pretend not to see that. Some would say they don't know how to swim.

  'No one will blame you if you just walk away.

  'But when you look at the mirror in the morning, you would have to cover your eyes because you can't face yourself.'   Besides money, Mr Chu has been dedicating a third of his time to the association for two years, gathering information, travelling to different countries to give lectures and press sessions on the issue, contacting political parties and community leaders, petitioning the Government.

  But time and money are of secondary importance to Mr Chu. His biggest problem has been dealing with disappointing news from the Government.

  Mr Chu, also a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong Law Department, helped organise an international conference in April 1995 where experts and the Hong Kong Institute of Planners, including government planners, spoke against the reclamation until proper land use studies had been done.

  Mr Chu thought he had won the battle until he discovered that the Government had been going ahead with its Green Island public dump project.

  On March 13 last year, a motion proposed by Ms Loh against the public dump was passed by 31-0 in the Legislative Council.

  Mr Chu believed he had won again, but the Green Island project was only held up. It had not been cancelled.

  He was not reappointed to the Town Planning Board in March 1996 and was accused of serving a big property firm by criticising the reclamation project.

  The association is now campaigning for the Harbour Protection Bill which was gazetted in November and went through first reading on December 4.

  Under plans in the Territorial Development Strategy Review, 661 hectares of land have already been reclaimed and the Government is planning to reclaim 636 hectares more.

  'The Kowloon Peninsula was originally about 850 hectares. Some 1,250 hectares have already been reclaimed and the Government is reclaiming 1,297 hectares more under the present plan. The total will be two and a half times the size of the original area,' Mr Chu said.

  The narrowest point between Kowloon Point and Sheung Wan will be squeezed to about 800 metres.

  'I really hope that the Government will stop reclaiming the land. The harbour is getting so narrow that we may be able to walk across it in the future. If it wants land, it can develop the New Territories,' Mrs Chu said.

  A signature campaign was kicked off in October last year and almost 150,000 petition signatures were gathered and sent to the Executive Council 10 days ago, calling for a moratorium on further reclamation of Victoria Harbour.

  Mr Chu's entire family was mobilised in the campaign.

  'My 11th sister helped me to design the campaign poster. My ninth and 10th brothers each helped me to draw the maps and plans,' Mr Chu said.

  'My other brothers and sisters helped me to gather signatures.'   Recently he helped his mother prepare a letter, petitioning Chief Executive-designate Tung Chee-hwa.

  'I have 100 per cent confidence in winning, because the reclamation is 100 per cent wrong. However, I have zero confidence in the Government. How can it press on with something it knows is wrong?' Mr Chu asked.

  Throughout the past two years, Mr Chu says he has not stopped to ask himself why he was going to so much trouble.

  'I am a Buddhist and I am aware that there are four human incentives - money, lust, power, prestige. But I'm not working for any of the four.

  'I just feel there is a case that needs to be settled. When you've got to do it, you've got to do it,' Mr Chu said.

  He has listed four steps he has been taking to save the century-old harbour.

  'It's like when you want to educate your son, you'll first teach him and then advise him. If he does not listen, you'll have to coerce him or even smack him as a last resort,' Mr Chu said.

  He has reasoned with the Government and advised it against the reclamations at the international planners' conference as well as in the Legislative Council.

  'Now I'll have to force it to listen to us with public support. If it still won't listen, I'll have to 'smack' it. I'm not hitting it with my hands. I'm slamming it with law and reason.

  'The campaign will continue. There will be no compromise,' Mr Chu said.

  But he said he was impressed by the support the public has been giving him.

  'I'm nobody. And yet so many people are willing to stand on our side and give us their support. I hope more people will take more active roles to voice out their views,' he said.

  As for Mrs Chu, even at the age of 80 she is willing and able to lend a strident hand to the cause. 'I feel it was really a pity to reclaim so much land on the harbour,' she said.

  'We've gathered so many signatures.

  'Now the Government should consider our views.' 



Family united over the harbour