MEMBERS of the Preliminary Working Committee (PWC) of the Special Administrative Region have often complained about being misrepresented, quoted out of context and misunderstood by the public.
In his column in this paper two days ago, PWC member Tsang Yok-sing compared the situation to that of 'one dog barking at a shadow, whereupon a hundred others bark at its sound'.
Mr Tsang, who is also at the helm of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, put the blame on those who did not bother to check the facts before lashing out at the PWC. 'The shadow seen by the jittery dog,' he added, 'was nothing more than its own imagination.' Mr Tsang's comment is typical of the view shared by other PWC members. They seem to believe that the committee has been suffering an image problem primarily because of deep-rooted public bias against it.
To borrow the analogy of the shadow and the dogs, it is not that there are too many nervous dogs on the streets; the real issue is there are too many conspicuous shadows in the Chinese camp.
Various Chinese officials, some of them at senior levels, have been making contentious remarks about Hong Kong. These range from a local Xinhua (New China News Agency) functionary's remarks over the recognition of mainland academic credentials, to the head of the Public Security Ministry's distinction between patriotic and unpatriotic triad members.
A Shenzhen municipal spokesman also put his foot in it a couple of months ago, when he issued a personal warning, allegedly under the influence of alcohol, to the boss of the Oriental Daily group.