Who needs universal suffrage when we have Bayern Munich? Thank you Hong Kong SAR government for bringing the giants of German soccer to us. And, most importantly, on a day like today I would be remiss if I did not send a big hug to Hong Kong's daddy. Yes, thank you Beijing for keeping it real around here and ensuring that the best and the brightest are dictating the patriotic course for Hong Kong in the near future.
Now, there may be a chorus of negativity clamouring that you folks in Beijing are terminally insecure and because of that you have populated the government of Hong Kong with a plethora of mainland sycophants whose number one skill is not their ability to do their designated job but their ability to ingratiate themselves with the powers that be in Chinese government.
But, you know what, there will be no talk of that today because I firmly believe that just as everybody is Irish on St Patrick's Day, so too everybody should be Chinese on July 1, the Special Administrative Region Establishment Day. And no need to wait until National Day on October 1 to show your love for Beijing because today is the much ballyhooed 10th anniversary of reunification. So sing along with me: Grey skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face. Brush off the clouds and cheer up, put on a happy face. And spread sunshine all over the place, just put on a happy face!
I doubt there will be many people today who will have a happier face than Tsang Tak-sing, the man who is suddenly the number one sports official in Hong Kong.
A long-time Beijing loyalist, Tsang was pro-China well before it became chic. His anti-British sentiments saw him imprisoned for distributing 'inflammatory leaflets' during the 1967 riots. This man has an enviable thread of consistency. We know who and what he is. Despite his colleagues' penchant for expensive French vintages, the patriotic Tsang drinks only mao tai, Chinese rice wine.
And unlike virtually everybody else in Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's new cabinet, like Henry, Frederick, Matthew, York and Ambrose, he has no Western name. He's not Fred, Bill, Napoleon or Horatio, but simply Tsang. And I like that, I really do. The man is comfortable in his own skin.
Still, his appointment as the new Secretary for Home Affairs has a number of people concerned that he will favour pro-Beijing groups over pan-democrats. But come on people, let's be realistic here. Do you really think that Donald Tsang gets the chief executive's job unless he appoints a number of mainland loyalists to his cabinet?