Is HK politics imitating the TV sitcom “The Good Wife”?
By Raïssa Robles
Politicians never want to discuss their love life amid rumors of a juicy sex scandal.
Henry Tang Ying-yen admits affair
Yesterday, the man strongly tipped to be Hong Kong’s next Chief Executive to succeed Donald Tsang admitted he had “strayed”, three days after describing rumors about his affair with a staffer as “very entertaining.”
Henry Tang Ying-yen had resigned from his post as Hong Kong’s Chief Secretary only a week ago so he could make a bid to be HK’s top CEO in next year’s “election.”
I placed the word election in quotation marks because HK, being a Special Administrative Region of China, does not choose its head of state the way the Philippines does. That is, by direct vote of the people.
In Hong Kong, a 796-member “election committee” whose members lean mainly to Beijing’s wishes cast the winning vote.
In any case, Tang seemed to be THE choice until the vicious mill churned out details of his affair.
Tang, 59, has now countered with what he hopes is the final squelch to end all gossip. He issued through a PR firm a statement of apology in Chinese to Kwok Yu-chin, his wife of 27 years. The PR firm translated his statement as saying:
I have strayed in my love life and I feel deeply remorseful and guilty.
Rather then dampen speculations, though, South China Morning Post (SCMP) – the newspaper I write for – insisted something was lost in translation.
Was Tang admitting to “a mistake” or “mistakes”, SCMP impudently wanted to know. Of course it got no further reply from the PR firm.
And you know what Tang did next? He and his wife publicly emerged from their home holding hands.
Were they imitating the American sitcom “The Good Wife”? It’s about a rock star-handsome man running for office and suddenly confronted with a video on the Internet of his romp with another woman.
Sort of like the one that caught the late President Ferdinand Marcos in flagrante delicto with starlet Dovie Beams.
Isn’t HK politics beginning to look more and more like ours? Should we expect videos of Tang and the other woman to be uploaded next on the popular video sharing site YouTube?
Did you know that HK politicians have often used our brand of democracy as THE REASON why Hongkongers should not be given the right to vote directly for their head of state?
Chris Noth
We are held up as an example of how western-style democracy cannot work in the Asian setting.
Now speculation is rife in HK whether Beijing will simply look the other way and still give its blessings to Tang.
Just like what happened to the politician played by Sex and the City actor Chris Noth in The Good wife.
Abangan (Watch out for it…)!