Political theatrics create backlash

Democratic Party (DP) member Howard Lam Tsz-kin was arrested on Tuesday morning for allegedly misleading police with his kidnap claims. The latest twist in the bizarre "abduction" story, as dramatic as it may seem, is unsurprising to most people. The many doubtful points in Lam's tale were so clearly evident that many immediately questioned the story's authenticity the moment he told it.

What has surprised the public is the way the opposition camp reacted to Lam's story. By displaying a pair of thighs dotted with open wounds and staples still stuck in the flesh in a high-profile press conference, the DP leadership has no doubt achieved the kind of "shock and awe" effect they longed for. This is in a desperate attempt to embarrass the special administrative region government and central government authorities amid the controversy over the proposed joint checkpoint arrangement for the cross-boundary Express Rail Link.

But Albert Ho Chun-yan and Martin Lee Chu-ming, as well as other DP members, who organized the news conference last Friday, have defied not only common sense but also basic humanity; instead of seeking medical treatment for their injured comrade first, they prolonged his pain by retaining him for a press conference. They have prioritized the need to promote their political agenda over that of mitigating the pain of an injured person.

Lam's account of his "misadventure" defies common sense and is so inconceivable that it failed to convince any person of average intelligence. Yet veterans from the opposition camp like Lee and Ho still decided to hastily organize a press conference to publicize his "ordeal" without first seeking to verify the many dubious points in his story.

And Demosisto, another political party from the opposition camp, has unhesitatingly implicated mainland authorities by dubbing the incident "cross-boundary law enforcement". This is despite the absence of any such evidence. It was also quick to draw a parallel between Lam's unverified saga and the proposal to implement joint checkpoints inside the future high-speed rail terminus in West Kowloon.

Over the years, the opposition camp has exploited every opportunity to discredit both the central and SAR governments, no matter how incredible the maneuvers this entails. But such indulgence is not without cost. Public trust for the camp has been declining in recent years. The latest political theatrics they have exhibited has earned them nothing but a huge blow to their credibility.

(HK Edition 08/16/2017 page8)