Taking it on the chin
IT'S AMAZING WHAT BEING stuck behind bars can do to one's outlook on life. Serial killers repent and find God. Beauty-queen-raping, ear-nibbling boxing champions bone up on Chairman Mao Thought. And bent buccaneers of the bourse suddenly find that filthy lucre has lost its allure.
The latter appears to be the case for Chim Pui-chung, erstwhile Legislative Council maverick, self-proclaimed madman and convicted forgery 'plotter'. 'Only care about your pocket,' he once thundered, back in the days when he would arrive at Legco in his gold Rolls-Royce and pepper the chamber with his blasts of bombast.
An eight-month stretch in Stanley Prison, however, has produced a kinder, gentler and infinitely more metaphysical Chim: 'Even if you are as rich as Li Ka-shing and make $100 billion profit, what for? How can you eat that? Enjoy your life. Keep your health. Try to live humbly and happily.' It was also a slimmer Chim, 52, who emerged from what he dubs his 'holiday in Stanley', in June last year. 'I was 163 pounds when I went in, 138 when I came out,' he says, adding, a little shamefacedly, 'but now I'm back to 155 pounds.' He was sentenced to three years after being found guilty of plotting to forge share transfer documents relating to property deals, after being acquitted of more serious fraud charges. His sentence was reduced to 12 months on appeal.
He strenuously maintains his innocence, claiming he was the victim of a political vendetta for being too outspoken about the pre-handover government, but says he's not the sort of man to hold grudges. Since his release from prison, he has been quietly running his Golden Island and Carriana Chiu Chow restaurants, catching up with friends and taking time to smell the roses.
Not to mention mapping out his bid to become the next Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Is he serious? Did he lose his marbles along with his love handles in Stanley Prison? 'I may be serious or I may not be,' he says enigmatically. 'I'm certainly not ruling it out. There's nothing in the Basic Law that would stop me trying.' Chim has also been negotiating with his nemesis, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and says he may finally be close to a settlement on his former flagship, Mandarin Resources, which holds the dubious record of being suspended from trading for more than 14 years.
At one point, Chim issued a writ for $50 billion in damages against five senior SFC members for 'maliciously libelling' him in documents pertaining to the company's winding up.
'Both parties have in principle agreed to settle,' he says. 'I'm hopeful it will be as early as next month. I will buy out the shares from the minority shareholders. If any of them have lost a single dollar, I say stand up and I'll pay them $100 for every $1 they have lost. Not one minority shareholder will give evidence in court to say they have lost a single dollar. You understand? I will offer them a very high price, and dispose of all my shares in the company, so a new manager can take over. I have guaranteed to the SFC I won't be a director or chairman of a listed company for three years. But I won't settle unless the SFC permits Mandarin to resume trading.' Chim has a curious oratory style, where he builds rapidly from normal conversation to full-scale ranting, punctuated with ums, ahs, squeaks, belches, grunts, yowls and growls. Certain words are emphasised by pulling down the corners of his mouth, forming an almost perfect triangle. He also tacks a 't' sound on the end of some words. Thus, 'then' becomes 'then-t', 'unknown' becomes 'unknown-t'. At one point he refers repeatedly to 'de marcos'. I wonder what possible relevance the former Philippine first couple could have to the subject at hand, before realising he is talking about democracy. It is difficult to keep the interview on track - he segues from subject to subject, in a manner described by one past interlocutor as 'stream of consciousness - heavy on the stream, light on the consciousness'.