Public Eye | Property fat cat thinks high home prices are hunky-dory
Was he asleep throughout the 79 days of the "umbrella movement"? Tear gas, pepper spray, the occupation of streets, young people wearing hard hats and goggles and armed with spiked shields clashing with baton-wielding police officers - did all that somehow escape his notice? Nearly 50,000 Hongkongers competing for just 2,000 Home Ownership Scheme flats last week - did he miss that too? Looks like it. Why else would businessman Stewart Leung Chi-kin say it was healthy for property prices to soar up to 10 per cent a year? 's jaw dropped when Leung told the media last week that not only should home prices go up, the government should also scrap its cooling measures. But then Leung is a property tycoon. He heads Wheelock Properties and the Real Estate Developers Association. Why should he give a damn that home prices are already so sky-high that tens of thousands of families can only afford slum subdivided flats barely bigger than prison cells? Like our other developers, his priority is to squeeze every cent out of ordinary Hongkongers. That is what he means when he says it is healthy for overpriced home prices to rocket further. It is certainly healthy for developers to be able to demand HK$2 million for 180 sq ft flats. Whether it is also healthy for ordinary Hongkongers or Hong Kong as a whole is not a factor that enters their equation. Ordinary Hongkongers know something is seriously wrong when 50,000 people clamour for 2,000 government-subsidised flats. They know the Occupy movement was not just about democracy. It was also about pent-up fury over unaffordable housing, the disproportionate power of the tycoons, rising poverty and the wealth gap. Why else would thousands of otherwise law-abiding residents stare the police down even when bombarded with tear gas? But do not bother explaining that to Leung and his tycoon pals. You will only get puzzled faces staring blankly back at you. Occupy Central? What's that?
Public Eye is a freelancer for ATV. There, we have declared our interest. Now let's talk about the many myths exposed by the sad saga of the cash-strapped broadcaster's inability to pay its 700 staff, including Public Eye. Myth No1: ATV is a pro-Beijing mouthpiece that panders to the central government by thrashing the pan-democratic camp. If that was true, Beijing would have strong-armed a wealthy white knight into rescuing the sinking station by now. But that has not happened, even though staff are threatening industrial action that may sound the death knell for ATV, because licence conditions require it to have daily news shows in English and Chinese. Myth No2: Hong Kong is an advanced city with labour protection laws equivalent to those in other developed societies. ATV has not paid its staff for two months, but the Labour Department is powerless to do anything. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung has warned he will prosecute ATV bosses once he has enough evidence of the unpaid wages. Is he trying to be funny? Even ATV bosses have repeatedly admitted they have not paid wages. Myth No3: Labour Party legislator Lee Cheuk-yan, who also heads the Confederation of Trade Unions, is a crusader for workers' rights. Yes, he shows up at labour disputes, and put on a big show last year by championing striking dock workers demanding better pay from container terminal boss Li Ka-shing. But targeting tycoons fits into his unionist and pro-democracy politics. Backing ATV workers does not. Why? Because he believes the myth ATV is a Beijing mouthpiece. That is why he has not said a word in support of its 700 workers.
