The price of allowing triads to harass umbrella movement
Commenting on yesterday's intervention by so-called anti-occupy groups, the risk consultancy firm SVA warns, "there will be many lingering after effects", notably in the political price these groups will exact for their support.
Commenting on yesterday's intervention by so-called anti-occupy groups, the risk consultancy firm Steve Vickers and Associates (SVA) warns, "there will be many lingering after effects", notably in the political price these groups will exact for their support.
SVA mentions in this respect the Heung Yee Kuk, who pledged to support the government and also triad involvement both in support of anti-occupy groups and as suspected agitators in Kowloon West. SVA warned that tacit acceptance of overt triad activity under the banner of "blue ribbons" or United Front organisations, "may perhaps help the Hong Kong and mainland governments meet their short-term objectives".
However, the blatant triad involvement will cause "longer-term difficulties in policing Hong Kong, post Occupy Central". SVA added that this situation had been exacerbated by perceived inaction by government against senior level triad office-bearers since the 1997 handover, with some even acquiring mainland recognition and titles.
The current political crisis has, for many, exposed the weaknesses of "one country, two systems". But one area in which it appears to be working smoothly is in the exploitation of the driving licence application system by visitors from the mainland. The Transport Department has recently seen an increase in the number of mainland Chinese applications for Hong Kong driving licences.
This coincides with the appearance of travel articles on the internet aimed at mainland Chinese, drawing attention to a loophole in Hong Kong's licence application system. Mainland Chinese with a valid licence and a Hong Kong correspondence address can go to Admiralty's transport office and apply for a Hong Kong licence. This is because China is not a signatory to the UN international drivers licence regulations, which means that mainland Chinese are unable to obtain international drivers licences.
They are thus not allowed to rent and drive cars in certain countries. However, some countries will allow drivers to hire cars on the basis of their Hong Kong drivers' licence, thus obviating the need for an international licence. In Hong Kong, international drivers' licences are only issued to those with a Hong Kong identity card.
However, mainland Chinese only need to show a local correspondence address and their China licence to obtain the Hong Kong licence. Some say this loophole should be closed and mainland drivers shouldn't have such easy access to a Hong Kong licence given the different driving regulations in the two jurisdictions.
For many years the MTR's park and ride system has been fairly straightforward. Drivers parked and then got the ticket stamped at an MTR station to show the train service had been used.
Now car parking tickets are being phased out and drivers are obliged to use Visa or Octopus cards when using the car park. If drivers use their Octopus cards at the car park as well as for their MTR journey they might reasonably assume that the park and ride discount is automatically applied.
However, a reader has alerted us to the fact that this is not necessarily the case. In some cases it is necessary to present the Octopus card at a customer service desk to get the discount. This is the case, for example, at Hang Hau, but not at Choi Hung. While this advice is available on the MTR website, there are no notices for example at East Point City car park at Hang Hau pointing out this requirement to drivers. Our reader paid the full car park fee for some time before realising he wasn't getting the discount.
