Bravo! Netizens have praised Christine Fong and her group for their performance. Photo: TVB
Jeff Pao - May 14, 2014 1:42pm
Legco drama Act 2: Kneeler-leaders get their 15 minutes
All kneel, and so some attention-seeking politicians dutifully did — and got what they wanted.
They were dramatizing their opposition to a government plan to build an incinerator and expand an existing reclamation site in Hong Kong's Tseung Kwan O district. They said the project poses health risks.
Coming just a day after a 75-year-old man begged legislators on bended knees to spare an elderly home from demolition, the theatrics by the local politicians were hardly original but the outcome was no less dramatic — they landed on television and in newspapers and their cause got an unexpected boost.
Netizens were quick to praise the group, led by Christine Fong, a 1980s television drama queen, for the performance. Fong serves on the Sai Kung district council.
Fong and her colleagues were on hand in Tuesday's public works subcommittee meeting of the Legislative Council to discuss the proposed waste disposal project.
But they were asked to leave by committee chairman Lo Wai-kwok who said the meeting was closed to the public for security reasons.
Even so, the public could still watch the proceedings on monitors outside the meeting room. These were also being streamed on the internet, according to the Legco secretariat.
Fong and her peers fell on their knees as the doors began to close. Photographers and camera men clicked away and the rest, as they say, is yesterday's news today.
EL/JP/RA
Jeff Pao
Chief reporter at EJ Insight