Peter Tsang Yu-hung on SCMP (2)
Pony Ma & Others
13 August 2013
| Peter Tsang: | Thanks for offering me your very genuine concern & continuous support towards my past juvenile tragedy encounter. Though we are now all over sixty, I treasure & precious very much our everlasting friendship which had started more than forty years ago when we were schoolmates in New Method College, Hong Kong. |
| MM Chiu: | Peter Tsang, thank you for writing to the forum. I think what's true will prevail in the end. You have my sincere support if you are unveiling the truth.I read what Pony showed us and learnt about this reconciliation committee. Pl keep us posted of new information. I subscribe to SCMP online so I can reach any bygone news - (of the past 5-6 years, but never back down 46yrs ago to 1967)- from its archives if I have enough key words of the heading.I'm interested in the 67 May happenings and I find that there are books Chinese & English on this subject. Among the many there's one in Chinese by 張家偉2009 (who's currently still with the SCMP, i think), and an earlier one in English titled May Days HK, ed. R Bickers & R Yep. If only Bob Choi had included other details of 67 riots in his "Lamma island" - atop of the Lam Bun (林彬) incident?!Take good care Pete! Stay clear of the hackers and spam mails. My hacked Yahoo account is still lame, & I am reading and writing emails by entering the nmc_alumni forum. |
| Tim Fook: | Peter Tsang, I have read the article highlighted by Pony.Reconciliation is the best way to cancel the hatred. I recall that Mr. Elms is the one interviewed in last year by the Mingpao reporters. |
| Bob Choi: | Peter Tsang, "Truth and Reconciliation Committee" sounds encouraging, except for the "Committee" part. If history provides any guidance, it's that committees are ill-equipped to get to the truth of anything. Besides, is there really truth in politics? People hold different political beliefs and ideology based on their background and unique set of values...truth (objective truth) is seldom a part of the equation. Politics, like religion, thrives on personal beliefs and are immune from the truth. We can establish the facts and figures of WHAT happened in Hong Kong in the summer of '67, but the truth must deal with HOW and WHY they happened and that's a Pandora Box that few of us would wish to open. Peter Tsang, I understand you feel you were treated unjustly by the police and the court and that you wish to clear your name with the truth, but then what is the truth, Peter? Fact: 51 people were killed during that time. I believe at least some of them were innocent and did not deserve to die. Didn't they deserve some mention? Perhaps, the first step toward "reconciliation" is for us (all of us) to acknowledge that it was a tragic moment in time. Some people did what they believed to be right and got all of us into a precarious situation. Some got blown into bits, some were put behind bars and one ironically received (many years later) a Bauhinia Medal for his patriotic role in the riots! It's difficult for us to think that this is justice well-served. I repeat: How about the 51 who got killed... didn't they deserve some mention at least? So, what and where is the truth? Perhaps, we should leave this to the Committee! |
| Peter Wu: | Peter Tsang, I am sorry to disappoint you too because I’m inclined to agree with Bob about a decision by committee. Confronted with a difficult choice, the worst anyone can do is to set up a committee to try to come up with the answer. But this is exactly what people do. They don’t call it a committee, they call it a working group or a think tank, or a summit. Trouble is, a committee, working group, think tank (or dream drum!) often comes up with a terrible and incorrect decision because, by its very nature, committee involves several people or more. The more people you have, the more they are inclined to argue, grind the axe, bicker and disagree so the decision reached is often a compromise. In political speak, it means neither here or there so you might as well not put it to the committee in the first place. If you sit on the meetings of the city council, or our very own Legislative Council, you will see first hand the horrendous waste of time and our money, by the dithering, politicking, the posturing, dead-locking, grand-standing of our elected members, you name it. Do all these bull-shits achieve anything in the end? Very little I am afraid, Truth is another interesting area worthy of a brief mention. Like beauty, it’s very much in the eyes of the beholder. It’s seldom if ever objective. You know and I know HK became a British Colony as a result of the Opium War (or did it?). Ha, if you look at the English text books we used during our NMC days, it was referred to exclusively as the Anglo-Chinese War. In a similar vein, the contents in those so-called history books are rarely objective by virtue of the upbringing, culture, leaning, background of the authors. I am not saying they set out to mislead us (some do though, like the effing Japanese). What I am saying is that we all have inherent bias which we are not aware of and therefore shows up unconsciously in how we compile ‘history’. The contents are often made worse by the paucity or incorrect information used. Peter Tsang, you may or may not agree with what I say. If you don’t, that’s perfect fine. You, Bob and I can always form a committee to go over things. Oh, let’s not call it a committee. Call it a Friendly Chat, with a few whiskies and peanuts. |
-To be
continued-