Villagers angry but supportive over rehab centre

Mui Wo residents vented their anger yesterday at plans to open a drug rehabilitation centre in the village, but emotions quickly changed when they showed their support for the centre's cause.

Hundreds of residents, wearing red ribbons on their wrists and brandishing banners, attended the Home Affairs Department's consultation session. The villagers had recently criticised the government for failing to consult them on the best way to use the community's vacant New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Southern District Secondary School.

Emotions ran high as they challenged presentations made by officials from the security and education bureaus. Villagers said the local school should be used for local students, to save them 'four hours' of daily travel to schools off the island. But representatives of the Christian Zheng Sheng College said they would continue with their expansion plan, saying they had a dire need for the Mui Wo school to solve the overcrowding and safety problems at their premises in Ha Keng, Lantau Island. The college's premises at Ha Keng, which have a capacity of 60, now house more than 121 students. The college wants to expand to 200 places.

For a while, the meeting became so raucous that police were sent in to preserve order, and Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong urged villagers to calm down. The tone changed abruptly, and jeers turned into cheers, when Yu Mei-fung, principal of the Bui O Public school in Pui O, Lantau Island, told the meeting that villagers were not opposed to the drug rehabilitation students - and even supported them. Instead, she said, residents were unhappy because the government had turned a blind eye to the rising demand for local education.

'We support Zheng Sheng College,' she said. 'It needs a premises with good facilities... this does not conflict with the demands of Mui Wo residents. We have different needs. The government should give us a school here and find a good place for Zheng Sheng College.' That won an ovation from residents, students and college representatives.

The U-turn continued as local parents hugged and shook hands with students from the college, to show their support for them and to try to overcome the sense of antagonism created earlier.