My Take | Age discrimination – left, right and centre
- From the welfare chief and pro-establishment parties to the so-called liberal pan-democrats, no one gives a hoot about the plight of Hong Kong’s elderly
Welfare chief Law Chi-kwong has been drawing flak for his “cold blooded” response to the testimony of a poor elderly woman in the legislature.
He deserves the widespread criticism. Of all the ways he could have reacted, he chose to give the most bureaucratic reply, which was to tell the old lady to call the Social Welfare Department’s job recruitment section.
Compassion and empathy, it seems, are not part of his vocabulary. This is despite being a long-time lecturer in social work at the University of Hong Kong.
On the other hand, lawmakers from both the pro-government camp and the opposition shouldn’t get on their high horses.
At least Law showed up; most of them were nowhere to be seen in the welfare committee meeting for members of the public to voice concerns about the lack of care for the elderly. Welfare NGO representatives and ordinary people were there to talk about the hardships they faced, but few lawmakers were there to listen to them.
Lawmakers from the business and professional sectors were, as expected, nowhere to be seen. You would think the opposition pan-democrats would fare better, given their professed love of the people. Well, a few of them – I counted four – did show up, but most of the rest didn’t bother.