43
A SCHEME OF RENOUNCIATION OF TRIAD MEMBERSHIP
5.38
A number of persons who have been initiated as triad members, or have joined through the procedure known as "hanging the blue lantern", may have done so under duress. In some housing estates, for example, it is often difficult for a youth to move around unless he can claim membership of the local triad society.
5.39 Members who undergo the Hung Man ritual of initiation with a triad society take thirty-six oaths. The thirteenth oath states, "If I should change my mind and deny my membership of the Hung family, I will be killed by myriads of swords.". Consequently, there is a factual basis in the assertion, "once a triad, always a triad".
5.40
There is currently no legal mechanism whereby an initiated member, or even a person who believes himself to be a member, of a triad society can absolve himself of his membership. A member will always face the possibility of prosecution under the Societies Ordinance. There is a need to consider whether a scheme of renunciation of triad membership should be introduced.
5.41
For a number of years, the Correctional Services Department, in co-operation with the Judiciary, have made use of a so-called "triad cleansing" programme whereby young prison inmates are encouraged, as part of their rehabilitation process, to admit triad membership before a magistrate in return for a non-custodial additional sentence normally a binding-over. The courts do not like such "triad cleansing". As has already been stated, in paragraph 5.8 of this chapter, many magistrates, in any case, consider triad membership, especially among the young, to be a somewhat nebulous concept.
5.42
The courts may recognise that a triad member cannot legally abjure himself of membership. Taken together with the dislike of "triad cleansing", this may account for the low level of fines etc awarded in many prosecutions for triad membership.
5.43
Many of the options discussed in this chapter are harsh. Magistrates could be called upon to award severe sentences for triad membership. Again a scheme of renunciation of triad membership should be considered, so that those who "see the light" and wish to disassociate themselves from their former allegiance have a way out of their predicament.