Former child actor Kirato Wakayama is suspected to be among a growing number of people doing work for quasi-gangster groups.
PHOTO: THE_GOLDEN_DAWN/X
TOKYO– As a child actor, Kirato Wakayama was one of Japan’s most recognisable faces, starring in historical epics, the Kamen Rider superhero series, and the 2014 live-action remake of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service.
Now a young adult at 20, he is behind bars awaiting trial over his alleged role in the gruesome double murder of a Tokyo couple whose charred corpses were found in the woods of Nasu, 200km north of the capital, in April.
Wakayama, who is said to be in financial trouble, is suspected to be among a growing number of young people recruited for yamibaito (shady part-time work, in Japanese) with promises of a lofty payout for minimal work. Such work, however, is often illegal and runs the gamut from murder to armed robbery, scams and drug trafficking.
Much of the yamibaito is orchestrated by tokuryu (anonymous and fluid) quasi-gangster groups, which the traditional hierarchical yakuza syndicates have morphed into after stricter regulations against organised crime.
Dr Noboru Hirosue of Ryukoku University’s Criminology Research Centre told The Straits Times that a vast majority who tend to fall prey to yamibaito schemes are impressionable youth hailing from troubled backgrounds and aspiring to a glamorous lifestyle.
“But they are treated as disposable errand boys, and the masterminds do not care if they get arrested,” said the former probation officer in Japan’s Ministry of Justice.
He observed that people are reeled in either through vague recruitment advertisements on social media that do not explicitly mention what the job entails, or through invitations by friends or acquaintances.
Such crimes are posing a growing challenge for the Japanese law enforcement authorities and a threat to civic order. In 2023, there were 19,033 cases associated with the tokuryu, up 8.3 per cent from 2022.
Among the runners arrested for yamibaito were a 23-year-old former member of the Self-Defence Forces, a 22-year-old former nursery school teacher, and even high-school students. Some were older and saddled with debt, like a 36-year-old real estate firm employee, and even a 72-year-old woman whose assignment was to con another retiree of her ATM card.
Yet the shapeshifting nature of the crime groups makes it difficult to track down the masterminds, who are shrouded in secrecy. They seldom meet their charges, and use burner phones and apps which offer anonymity like Signal and Telegram.
Meanwhile, the tasks are divided up among the runners, who would often be assembled randomly without knowing one another, and the group is disbanded once the deed is done.
Kyushu University Professor Koji Tabuchi, a published author on criminal procedure law, said: “Because these recruits, who are employed for specific roles, do not know the overall structure of the group, including who was calling the shots, it makes it difficult to trace the masterminds.”
The growth of the tokuryu comes as the yakuza wanes, with numbers more than halving over a decade to 20,400 in 2023, according to Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA). At its peak in 1963, its numbers were at 184,100.
The NPA, as well as criminologists, attributed this to legislation in 2011 to combat organised crime, with yakuza members barred from opening bank accounts and renting apartments, among other things.
But former police investigator Yu Inamura told ST that this had an unintended effect: “This is a prime example of a cat-and-mouse chase. To evade the law, criminal groups changed their form and went underground.”
Now the director of the Japan Counter-Intelligence Association consultancy, Mr Inamura warned that the situation will likely worsen: “There is no silver bullet to eradicate this.”
He noted that many runners felt trapped and unable to back out even if they had second thoughts, because they had given their personal information to tokuryu groups, which would then threaten to inflict harm on them or their family members.
Dr Hirosue felt the police must do more to raise awareness of the risks of accepting yamibaito or being involved in the tokuryu, such as direct outreach on channels that are often used by young people.
There should also be focus on rehabilitation, he noted, given that many delinquents end up in a “very vicious cycle” because they are unable to integrate into society upon release.
In Wakayama’s case, he was among six people arrested for the murder of Mr Ryutaro Takarajima, 55, and his wife, Sachiko, 56, who ran multiple restaurants in the bustling Ameyoko in Tokyo’s Ueno district.
The police have attributed the incident to bad blood within the family, with the alleged mastermind being Seiha Sekine, the 32-year-old partner of the couple’s daughter.
Wakayama and his friend, South Korean national Kang Gwang-gi, 20, were said to have been offered 5 million yen (S$43,100) to murder the couple and dispose of their corpses.
The Yomiuri newspaper warned of an “extremely serious situation” in an editorial on June 3: “Casually accepting offers on social media simply for a reward can lead to irreversible consequences. People need to know that there is no such thing as easy money.”
SINGAPORE : The euro fell on Monday as the French President Emmanuel Macron called a shock election after being trounced in the European Union vote by the far-right, while the dollar was steady ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting later in the week.
The euro fell to $1.0764, its lowest since May 9, in early trading in Asia. It was last down 0.24 per cent at $1.0776 as investors weighed the implications of renewed political uncertainty in the euro zone's second-biggest economy in a key election year.
Eurosceptic nationalists made the biggest gains in European Parliament elections in the Sunday vote, an aggregated exit poll showed, prompting Macron to take a risky gamble to try to reestablish his authority.
"The prospects of a far right victory in France's snap elections may keep the euro under pressure in the near term," said Mansoor Mohi-Uddin, chief economist at Bank Of Singapore.
"But the exchange rate is still more likely to be influenced by this week's U.S. inflation data and FOMC meeting."
The European Central Bank cut rates last week in a well-telegraphed move, but offered few hints about the outlook for monetary policy given that inflation is still above target.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six rivals, was at 105.09, the highest since May 30, after rising 0.8 per cent on Friday following data that showed the world's largest economy created a lot more jobs than expected in May.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls expanded by 272,000 jobs last month, data showed, while economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls advancing by 185,000.
Ryan Brandham, head of global capital markets for North America at Validus Risk Management, said recently the U.S. labour market data has been showing some signs of softening, supporting discussions of rate cuts in the second half of 2024.
"But this result will likely take the steam out of that conversation. The Fed has shown patience in waiting for the confidence that inflation will fully return to target before signalling rate cuts, and that caution seems warranted."
The jobs data led traders to once again shift their expectations of when the Fed will cut rates and by how much. Markets are now pricing in 36 basis points of cuts this year compared to nearly 50 bps - or at least two cuts - before the jobs data.
The chances of a rate cut in September are now at roughly 50 per cent, from around 70 per cent late on Thursday.
The Fed is not expected to make any change at its policy meeting this week but the focus will be on the comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and changes to economic projections from the policymakers. U.S. inflation data is also due on Wednesday.
"We suspect that the median dot will fall from three cuts to less than two. A hawkish hold?," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex in New York.
The Bank of Japan is due to hold its two-day monetary policy meeting this week, with the central bank widely expected to maintain short-term interest rates in a 0-0.1 per cent range.
The policymakers are brainstorming ways to slow its bond buying and may offer fresh guidance as early as this week, sources familiar with its thinking told Reuters, in what would be a first step to reducing its almost $5 trillion balance sheet.
The Japanese yen weakened to 156.95 in early trading on Monday. The currency remains close to the 34-year trough beyond 160 per dollar reached at the end of April, which prompted Japanese officials to spend some 9.8 trillion yen ($62.46 billion) intervening in the currency market to support it.
Sterling was flat at $1.2723 having touched $1.2700, its lowest in a week earlier in the session.
With Israeli minister Benny Gantz (above) gone, PM Benjamin Netanyahu would lose the backing of a centrist bloc that has helped broaden support for the government in Israel and abroad.
PHOTO: REUTERS
JERUSALEM - Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government on June 9, withdrawing the only centrist power in the embattled leader’s far-right coalition amid a months-long war in Gaza.
The departure of Mr Gantz’s centrist party will not pose an immediate threat to the government. But it could have a serious impact nonetheless, leaving Mr Netanyahu reliant on hardliners, with no end in sight to the Gaza war and a possible escalation in fighting with Lebanese Hezbollah.
In May, Mr Gantz presented Mr Netanyahu with a June 8 deadline to come up with a clear day-after strategy for Gaza, where Israel has been pressing a devastating military offensive against the ruling Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Mr Netanyahu brushed off the ultimatum soon after it was given.
On June 9, Mr Gantz said politics was clouding fateful strategic decisions in Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet. Quitting while hostages were still in Gaza and soldiers fighting there was an excruciating decision, he said.
“Netanyahu is preventing us from advancing toward true victory,” Mr Gantz said in a televised news conference. “That is why we are leaving the emergency government today, with a heavy heart but with full confidence.”
Mr Netanyahu responded in a social media post, telling Mr Gantz it was no time to abandon the battlefront.
With Mr Gantz gone, Mr Netanyahu would lose the backing of a centrist bloc that has helped broaden support for the government in Israel and abroad, at a time of increasing diplomatic and domestic pressure eight months into the Gaza war.
While his coalition remains in control of 64 of parliament’s 120 seats, Mr Netanyahu will now have to rely more heavily on the political backing of ultra-nationalist parties, whose leaders angered Washington even before the war and who have since called for a complete Israeli occupation of Gaza.
This would likely increase strains already apparent in relations with the United States and intensify public pressure at home, with the months-long military campaign still not achieving its stated goals - the destruction of Hamas and the return of more than 100 remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Polls have shown Mr Gantz, a former army commander and defence minister, to be the most formidable political rival to Netanyahu, whose image as a security hawk was shattered by the Oct 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
Warning that the conflict in Gaza could take years, he urged Mr Netanyahu to agree on an election date in the autumn, to avoid further political infighting at a time of national emergency.
Mr Gantz joined a unity government soon after Oct 7 as part of Mr Netanyahu’s inner war cabinet where he, Mr Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant alone had votes.
On June 9, Mr Gantz described Mr Gallant, who has sparred with Mr Netanyahu and some ultra-nationalists ministers, as a brave leader and called on him “to do the right thing”, though he did not elaborate on what that meant.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded Mr Gantz’s now vacant seat at the war cabinet soon after the resignation was announced.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement Mr Gantz was giving Israel’s enemies what they want.
Asked whether he was worried about his departure impacting Israel’s standing abroad, Mr Gantz said Mr Gallant and Mr Netanyahu both know “what should be done.”
“Hopefully they will stick to what should be done and then it will be okay,” he said. REUTERS
Modi's new term as prime minister, therefore, is likely to be fraught with challenges on building consensus on contentious political and policy issues in the face of different interests of regional parties and a stronger opposition, analysts say.
Some analysts worry that the fiscal balance in the world's fastest-growing economy could also come under pressure due to demands for higher development funds for states ruled by the NDA's regional partners and a possible push by BJP to spend more on welfare to woo back voters it lost in this year's election.
Modi, whose election campaign was marked by religious rhetoric and criticism of the opposition for allegedly favouring India's 200 million minority Muslims, has adopted a more conciliatory tone since the shock result.
"We have won the majority ... but to run the country it is unanimity that is crucial ... we will strive for unanimity," he said on Friday after the NDA formally named him coalition head.
A Palestinian child sits on top of belongings fleeing Rafah due to an Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza Strip on June 7.
PHOTO: REUTERS
CAIRO - Israeli forces pounded central Gaza anew on June 9, a day after killing 274 Palestinians during a hostage rescue raid, and tanks advanced into further areas of Rafah in a bid to seal off part of the southern city, residents and Hamas media said.
Palestinians remained in shock over the death toll on June 8, the worst over a 24-hour period of the Gaza war for months and including many women and children, Palestinian medics said.
In an update on June 9, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 274 Palestinians were killed – up from 210 it reported the day earlier – and 698 were injured when Israeli special force commandos stormed into the densely populated Al-Nuseirat camp to rescue four hostages held since October by Hamas militants.
Israel’s military said a special forces officer was killed in exchanges of fire with militants emerging from cover in residential blocks, and that it knew of “under 100” Palestinians killed, though not how many of them were militants or civilians.
On June 9, three Palestinians were killed and several hurt in an Israeli air strike on a house in Al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled parts of nearby Al-Maghazi and Al-Nuseirat. All are built-up, historic refugee camps.
The Israeli military said in a statement its forces were continuing operations east of Bureij and the city of Deir al-Balah in the centre of the coastal enclave, killing several Palestinian gunmen and destroying militant infrastructure.
Israel sent forces into Rafah in May in what it called a mission to wipe out Hamas’ last intact combat units after eight months of war in which Israeli forces have bombed much of the rest of Gaza to rubble while advancing against fierce resistance.
Israeli tank forces have since seized Gaza’s entire border strip with Egypt running through Rafah to the Mediterranean coast and invaded several districts of the city, prompting around one million displaced people who had been sheltering in Rafah to flee elsewhere.
Israeli tanks advance further in Rafah
On June 9, tanks advanced into two new districts in an apparent effort to complete the encirclement of the entire eastern side of Rafah, touching off clashes with dug-in Hamas-led armed groups, according to residents trapped in their homes.
As of June 5, all but around 100,000 displaced people who took refuge in eastern Rafah after fleeing Israeli offensives further north in Gaza had left, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
“All UNRWA shelters in Rafah have been vacated. Many of the people who were based in Rafah have fled up the coast seeking safer locations in both Khan Younis and the middle area (of Gaza),” UNRWA said in a statement.
Palestinian medics said an Israeli air strike on a house in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah killed two people.
The Israeli military said troops of its 162nd division were raiding some districts of Rafah where they had located “numerous additional terror tunnel shafts, mortars, and (other) weapons” belonging to Palestinian Islamist militants.
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Hamas precipitated the war with a lightning cross-border attack into Israel on Oct 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. About half the hostages were freed during a brief November truce.
Israel's ensuing air and ground war in Gaza has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said in its June 9 update. The ministry says thousands more dead are feared buried under the rubble.
Attempts by the United States and regional countries to broker a deal that would release all remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire have repeatedly stumbled on Israeli and Hamas intransigence over terms for an end to the war.
Gaza’s conflict has destabilised the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas’ main backer Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israel along its northern border for months, raising fears of all-out war. REUTERS
District police chief Nor Azman Yusof said the accident occurred on Jalan Kuantan-Segamat near the Bahau junction at about 1.30am on June 9.
PHOTO: BERNAMA
ROMPIN - Three people were killed and 36 injured in an accident involving a bus and a trailer lorry in Rompin, Pahang, in the wee hours of June 9.
District police chief Nor Azman Yusof said the accident occurred on Jalan Kuantan-Segamat near the Bahau junction at about 1.30am. The bus, carrying 39 people, including two drivers, went out of control, hit a lorry laden with iron coils and overturned on the road.
He said the bus was taking teachers from the elementary school Sekolah Kebangsaan Jeram Masjid Tanah, Melaka, along with their children to Terengganu to attend a benchmarking programme.
Teacher Hamzah Ahmad, 60, died at Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital where he was taken to for treatment, reported Malaysian news outlet New Straits Times.
Mr Hamzah is the second teacher killed in the crash. Mr Hasnatul Adilah Hassan, 48, succumbed to his injuries at the accident scene, the report said.
The second bus driver, 29-year-old Mohd Adi Hasan, died on the way to the Muadzam Shah Hospital.
“Initial investigations found that the accident occurred when the bus driver lost control and collided with a trailer lorry before overturning on the roadside slope,” the police chief told reporters at the scene.
He added that those injured were taken to Muadzam Shah Hospital in Rompin and Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan, and that the lorry driver escaped unhurt.
Mr Nor Azman said the accident was being probed for causing death by careless driving. He appealed to eyewitnesses to provide information on the accident. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
The 28-year-old Hongkonger was a fresh visual arts graduate back in the summer of 2019, when an anti-government movement of an unprecedented scale rocked Hong Kong.
Lo took part in most of the demonstrations often marked by violent confrontations, witnessed a mob attack at a railway station, designed posters to promote the protests and would not go to bed without checking all the major news outlets for the latest updates.
Hong Kong was rocked by months-long, often violent unrest in 2019. Photo: Sam Tsang
He was not directly affected when Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 in the wake of the unrest, triggered by a now-withdrawn extradition bill, until one day he realised he and his friends no longer shared news on social media and had started to watch their words.
Six of his eight close friends who met in university also moved out of the city one after another, with most heading to Canada which had offered Hongkongers a “lifeboat” emigration pathway.
Lo soon decided to pack his bags, too, to take up an offer in Dubai.
“Hong Kong has become a soulless city to me, and I don’t see any future for it,” Lo said. “I do not want my anchor to be stuck in Hong Kong, which would force me to put all my energy and everything there.”
The feeling of not belonging also resonated among many who took part in the 2019 protests, the start of which marked its fifth anniversary on Sunday, and are now picking up the pieces of their disrupted lives. On June 9 of that year, an estimated 1 million residents took to the streets to demonstrate against the now-withdrawn extradition bill.
‘Keen to move on’
A total of 10,279 people, aged between 11 years and 87, were arrested in connection with offences including rioting, illegal assembly, common assault, arson and criminal damage during the protests.
Five years on, many are waiting for their cases to be settled.
The police force was under pressure last year to expedite the investigation process, with its commissioner pledging to wrap up about 6,000 outstanding cases as soon as possible amid calls for finality and closure.
Declining to confirm whether they had all since been closed, police this week said 2,961 cases out of the total had either gone through or were undergoing judicial procedures, with 2,328 of them having to face legal consequences.
The judiciary, meanwhile, said around 93 per cent of more than 2,320 protest cases had been brought to court as of February and that most of the outstanding ones had been set for trial this year and 2025.
Among them, an ex-member of a now-dissolved pro-independence group was handed down a 12-year prison term for a bomb plot, the heaviest sentence meted out to date.
Riot police arrest protesters during a demonstration in October 2019. Photo: Winson Wong
Last year, 950 people were sent to prison for offences during the protests or violating the national security law, an increase of 15 per cent from 829 in 2022.
Hong Kong has undergone a sea change in its political environment and the government has described the new era as a transition from “chaos to order”, with the focus now on restoring prosperity.
The political scene has fundamentally altered since Beijing imposed the national security law on the city in June 2020.
The once feisty opposition has been decimated, with many of its core leaders either behind bars or overseas. The legislature is now fully made up of those deemed “patriots” after an electoral shake-up by Beijing. Protests are almost non-existent in the city.
In March, the city reinforced the 2020 legislation with a new domestic national security law as required under Article 23 of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.
With that in place and order restored, some academics have argued it is time for the government to embrace those young protesters who have mended their ways but are facing obstacles in securing jobs or resuming their studies.
Such a step would mark the start of much-needed reconciliation to heal the scars of the past, they said.
Protesters take to the streets of Central back in June 2019. Photo: Winson Wong
Paul Yip Siu-fai, director of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention under the University of Hong Kong (HKU), called for stronger rehabilitation and career support, as well as early release for inmates who had shown they had turned over a new leaf.
His centre has provided jobs for seven to eight such protesters at HKU in recent years.
Many of the arrested protesters had their own ideals and leadership qualities although they were misled, Yip said, stressing the need for the government to offer them a safety net, rather than casting them aside.
“To put it bluntly, they have no expectations of the government,” he said.
“After all, the government has locked them up and punished them so severely. But if you give them some care and some very tangible support, I think all of them will be very grateful.
“If you do it, you will do no harm or probably have a very unexpected gain.”
Academic William Hayward, who co-wrote an opinion piece with Yip nearly four years ago calling for some leniency for the young people arrested, said there was a lack of formal government policies to help protesters to reintegrate into society.
Hayward, dean of Lingnan University’s faculty of social sciences, said he hoped the government would treat young people “less as threats to our future and more as our future itself” as he felt national security concerns had been adequately addressed for now.
“They are keen to move on with their lives, and Hong Kong will be a better place if we help them do so,” he said.
In a reply to the Post, a government spokesman said the “large-scale riots in 2019” were the “Hong Kong version of colour revolution”, but underscored its support for rehabilitating offenders.
He said the Correctional Services Department had been making every effort to address the rehabilitation needs of those involved in the protests and “to promote reconciliation between them and the society”.
That included a specific programme aiming to help offenders “disengage from radical thoughts and violent behaviours through moral education and the re-establishment of positive values”, as well as collaboration with NGOs to assist those who had been jailed.
‘Becoming bystanders’
Former government minister Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, an adviser in public administration in the Education University of Hong Kong’s Asian and policy studies department, said the city missed an opportunity for closure by not carrying out a full review into the 2019 turmoil.
Cheung said the unrest was not purely a national security issue, as it also reflected many other deep-seated social contradictions. Not everyone on the streets was unpatriotic or pro-independence, he added.
“If we had the opportunity to do things like a review and reconciliation, it would actually have been a way to get out of the shadow of that time. But there is no chance now, and I don’t know if there will still be a chance,” said Cheung, who served as the transport and housing minister between 2012 and 2017.
Protesters run from tear gas on Harcourt Road in Admiralty during a protest in June 2019. Photo: Sam Tsang
Pointing to post-apartheid South Africa and the 1967 leftist riots in colonial Hong Kong, he said: “Because after any of these shake-ups, you will have some problems to deal with, and sometimes, we have to review what happened in the past, so that those people can move on … that is, to have closure.
“This is what South Africa did. When Mandela was president, they established a [truth and] reconciliation commission, and that was how it drew the closure.”
More pressingly, he said, authorities should also tackle a brewing problem in society of residents’ apparent apathy and disengagement following the 2019 upheaval.
Record-low turnouts have been recorded at elections following Beijing’s “patriots-only” overhaul and the decline has been especially pronounced in the 18-30 age group, falling to below 8 per cent in the 2021 Legco poll.
“Young people may be very confused about the current situation because they had once been very passionate, thinking they were able to make a difference. They’re now a little lost, probably as they’re not accepting the rules of the new era and can’t find a way out,” Cheung said.
He said it was very important for mainstream society to have a sense of engagement, because if residents did not participate, they would become indifferent bystanders.
“What we hope is to enable residents, especially the younger generation, to play the role of stakeholder rather than a bystander,” he said.
Since the protests, more than 144,400 Hongkongers – including many young families – have moved to the UK by seizing an emigration pathway offered by Britain, while tens of thousands have also flocked to Canada and Australia under similar schemes.
A tearful farewell at Hong Kong International Airport in 2021. Photo: Nora Tam
Population data comparisons show there were 44,500 fewer Hongkongers in the prime 34-56 age group in 2023 than in the 30-52 segment in 2019, suggesting some had moved elsewhere in the four years since the protests erupted.
UK government figures also show Hongkongers in their 40s are the biggest group applying for the British National (Overseas) emigration route, followed by those in their 30s and 50s.
Legislator Gary Zhang Xinyu, who has helped people arrested over their involvement in the 2019 unrest, said the protests had led to a rapid deterioration of trust and relationships in society.
But he disagreed residents had become withdrawn or indifferent to politics, attributing their reticence instead to being more careful about airing their views as they were fearful of treading on sensitive issues.
He said authorities and society should avoid moves that sent residents the wrong signal, pointing to cases where certain groups had agreements to rent venues cancelled or increased scrutiny on shops operated legally by people who supported the protests.
“This is a shame, as this leaves people guessing whether they have uttered something that has offended the emperor … I think we should not create this type of atmosphere,” he said.
Zheng Yanxiong, the director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, said on Saturday that effectiveness and deterrence held the key for the city in making use of the two security laws, arguing there was still a lot of work to be done by law enforcement and the judiciary.
“Justice in the outcome cannot be substituted by justice in procedure or execution, let alone the dignity of the law with compassion,” he said at an event marking the fourth anniversary of the Beijing-decreed legislation.
Regina Ip has dismissed the idea that Hongkongers have now withdrawn from society. Photo: Dickson Lee
New People’s Party chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, the convenor of the government’s key decision-making Executive Council, said not everyone in society shared a need for “reconciliation”, which in itself was also not a “one-way street”.
“Young people ask for forgiveness and acceptance. How can that be possible if they are not reconciled to the reality that Hong Kong is part of China, under ‘one country, two systems’?” she said.
Ip, also a lawmaker, dismissed the notion that Hongkongers had now withdrawn from society.
“Every weekend, 300,000 people, including many young people, go north to enjoy what mainland cities have to offer. Is it fair to describe them as ‘cynical and withdrawn’?” she said.
“And there are many others working hard every day to improve their livelihoods. These people are not ‘cynical and withdrawn’.”
Lau Siu-kai, a consultant at semi-official Beijing think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said the central government would not change its new constitutional order built with the national security laws and the electoral overhaul. The ball was in the opposition supporters’ court to accept “political reality”.
While Beijing was unlikely to introduce any political reform to relax requirements for standing in elections in coming years, Lau argued the government could be more open and consider appointing moderate figures to its advisory bodies on non-political issues.
A ‘naive’ existence
The opposition Democratic Party can relate to Zhang’s point about hiring venues. It has not been able to hold a spring reception for members for the past two years, as different venues cancelled at the last minute without explanation, fuelling suspicion they had faced political pressure.
Previously the city’s biggest opposition party with representatives sitting in the legislature and district councils for over two decades, it no longer has any elected members following the political shake-up.
Last month, two of its former lawmakers were convicted of subversion over their participation in an unofficial “primary” election which the court found was part of a wider plot to “undermine, destroy or overthrow” the government by creating a constitutional crisis after taking over the legislature.
Three other party members pleaded guilty to the charge in the landmark national security case which involved 47 rising and leading opposition politicians and activists.
With essentially no income as donors stay away, the party recently further cut staff numbers. Chairman Lo Kin-hei said the real challenge the party faced was not financial constraints or the government’s indifference but whether residents still found it relevant or agreed with its values.
Conceding that the party had limited influence in the new political landscape, Lo warned that over time, governance in a city without an opposition would suffer.
“Most Hongkongers now do not want to engage in serious discussions and all they want to do is to make fun of government policies,” he said, calling it an understandable but unhealthy trend.
Pointing to the government’s recent suspension of a controversial waste-charging scheme which was due to be launched in August after an earlier postponement, Lo argued it might not necessarily have hit a dead end if civil society organisations were still thriving.
Different parties would have warned the government long before the launch to ramp up its preparatory works and other supporting facilities, he said, while citywide “waste-no-mall” recycling spots operated by volunteers would also have facilitated the policy.
Most of these spots had ceased operating in recent years.
With the civil movement at a low ebb, even opposition supporters had poured scorn on the party, calling members naive, if not silly, to believe their efforts mattered, especially when it indicated its intention to field candidates in revamped elections.
“We just want to maintain a voice representing Hongkongers in society, especially when everyone believes rational discussions no longer exist,” Lo said. “We just want to offer a form of presence in Hong Kong.”
