IT is rare that I get irked enough by a newspaper article to write a letter of protest to the authorities. For example, only two have been shot off this week. One was to the Governor of Guangdong who is reported to have forbidden transvestite shows in hisbailiwick after a group of Thais, spuriously male and tourists, ripped off their raincoats revealing thousands of sequins and competing hormones and kept the citizens swaying to Broadway numbers till the early hours.
What qualities of cultural life can these people look forward to, I asked him, if a Thai lad under an inch of Elizabeth Arden can't slip into the country and a cheongsam and belt out I Did It My Way ! for them? The Governor's failure to reply by return post has left me disappointed.
Not with Chief Inspector Thumper of the Complaints Against The Police Office, though. My letter to him had been a fiery protest against failure to catch and prosecute illegal road racers, even when a division of coppers, disguised as snipers and French onion sellers, were stationed on roof tops making home videos of it all. I also wanted to know why only 0.1 per cent of complaints to CAPO - one complaint actually - had been upheld.
A police motorcyclist fell off outside my front door with a reply later the very same day.
''Taking the least first,'' wrote Inspector Thumper, ''I think you might find that the one successful case you refer to is even less than 0.1 per cent. For economy reasons, Government statisticians are restricted to one decimal place.
''The difficulty the police have is proving anything since nothing can be believed; not the public, not the evidence of our own eyes - nothing. Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding the one upheld complaint could not be denied some credibility.
''The police constable concerned was actually seen by the Legco member stealing his 500 SEL and, frustrated that the vehicle was stolen in turn from him by a customs officer, he opened up with an AK47 on a mixed group of off-duty customs, immigration and fire service officers in a noodle shop. Corroboration among survivors was high.
