The Dubious Achievement Awards 2014
A year of stupidity, bile and hate: 2014 takes the prize for the Most Dubious Year Ever. By Adam White
There’s one phrase that sums up 2014 in Hong Kong: “tinged with mincing ludicrousness.”
They are phenomenal words from an unusual source. In a June editorial decrying the “illegal farce” of democratic voting, Chinese state mouthpiece the Global Times claimed that using iPhones to “vote” on reform proposals was “tinged with mincing ludicrousness.”
What a phrase for what a year. It’s been 12 months of affected stupidity from the whole of the SAR. Will 2015 regain some semblance of decorum? We doubt it.
Dastardly Pantomime Villain of the Year: CY Leung
Sam Tsang/SCMP
Chief Executive of Hong Kong is just about the worst job in geopolitics, but CY Leung has turned being reviled into an art form.
Sure, he doesn’t know how to deal with the ton of shit that’s thrown his way from Hong Kong below and Beijing above. We wouldn’t either. But the truth is that CY Leung couldn’t lead his way through a dim sum order. They call him a wolf, but he’s more like a turtle who holes up and hides while the city falls apart around him. When he’s not flat-out refusing to engage, he’s saying things which prove just how outrageously out of touch he is.
There was the time he derided public nomination because it would put power into the hands of the poor majority of Hong Kong, who make less than $14,000 per month. And he said this to the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the International New York Times, no less. In the same interview he claimed that neither sports nor religion contributes to the economy. Or how about when he vowed to disclose proof that “external forces” were at work in Occupy, and then never did? Then there’s the $50 million payout deal from an Australian engineering firm that CY failed to disclose when he was elected. For CY, Hong Kong is one thing only: money.
There was a moment in the first week of Occupy when it seemed like, at the very least, we might be able to ditch the CE. But he hunkered down and the moment passed. No charisma, no political flair, no support. We may not be able to choose our next leader: but the sooner China ditches CY, the better.