Opinion | Why I didn't donate to Sichuan earthquake relief
To blame Hongkongers as being 'selfish' or 'cold-hearted', as some opinionated and angry mainlanders claim on weibo, is simply wrong
As a Hong Kong citizen, it intrigues me to read Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s response to lawmakers’ boycott on her motion to donate public funds to earthquake relief efforts in Yaan. A South China Morning Post article quoted her as saying: “We have to put trust in the system.”
To be honest, her stress on “trust” sounds meaningless and almost sarcastic to me. It is practically impossible for Hong Kong people to trust the mainland political system after seeing piles of evidence that previous donations for various Chinese developments ended up in corrupt officials’ pockets.
“Trust” has to be earned through actions - not from an official’s public speech like hers.
The tension between Hong Kong and the mainland has been intensifying in the past 15 years. There are complicated reasons behind that. But I should point out that what a big chunk of Hong Kong people read about the mainland in the news is about corrupt officials and hilarious stories of unaccountable money spent for their own good. This has given the majority of Hongkongers pause before committing to disaster-charity donations for their “fellow countrymen”.
The devastating flood in the 1990s was unforgettable. After that, whenever there were natural disasters in China, the Hong Kong government would make donations and the community would launch fundraising efforts. However, it is frustrating to see constant news about misused funds.
