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the government provided land to industry at nominal prices for a period of about twenty years as an inducement for investors. When this original lease expired, the industrialists had to pay the market price for their land. But when the renewal became imminent in 1971, the cotton spinners joined force with twenty-six industrial bodies to oppose this re-assessment of industrial land value. They also obtained the support of all the unofficial members in the Legislative Council. Even though the government maintained that the legality and validity of the re-evaluation was incontestable, it finally agreed to modify the statutes in June, 1973, after a protracted confrontation, (Hong Kong Cotton Spinners Association 1973; Miners 1981: 357-359). Yet in spite of their substantial political power, the spinners expressed a passive attitude towards politics. Their views were couched in a common format: 'It would be good if the government would do this and that. But we know these would not happen'. Even the most prominent public figure among them, A22, confessed that he took up unofficial positions in the government because he was invited to do so and he 'hated to say no'. They were hardly the revolutionary bourgeoisie as portrayed by Marx which 'creates a world after its own image'. (Marx and Engels 1967:84)
In their defensive posture, political vocabularies were conspicuous by their absence. Terms such as democracy, private property, equality, elections and so on were never mentioned. The recurrent phrase was 'peace and stability'. The theme of nationalism, so dominant among American, African and the pre-war Southeast Asian Chinese businessmen (see Seider 1974: 807; Heilbroner 1964: 30-31; Stokes 1974: 557-579; Wong 1975: 117-120), was raised by just two spinners. B1 mentioned this to dismiss the idea:
'In Hong Kong it is money [that accounts for executive turnover]. In South Korea, you can say you are working for your country. But here? (He shrugged).'
The sole local-born spinner, B4, admitted to some 'nationalistic' sentiment:
'I would want a sense of belonging and like Hong Kong to develop. I wish to try to create a society of my own identity,
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the government provided land to industry at nominal prices for a period of about twenty years as an inducement for investors. When this original lease expired, the industrialists had to pay the market price for their land. But when the renewal became imminent in 1971, the cotton spinners joined force with twenty-six industrial bodies to oppose this re-assessment of industrial land value. They also obtained the support of all the unofficial members in the Legislative Council. Even though the government maintained that the legality and validity of the re-evaluation was incontestable, it finally agreed to modify the statutes in June, 1973, after a protracted confrontation, (Hong Kong Cotton Spinners Association 1973; Miners 1981: 357-359). Yet in spite of their substantial political power, the spinners expressed a passive attitude towards politics. Their views were couched in a common format: 'It would be good if the government would do this and that. But we know these would not happen'. Even the most prominent public figure among them, A22, confessed that he took up unofficial positions in the government because he was invited to do so and he 'hated to say no'. They were hardly the revolutionary bourgeoisie as portraited by Marx which 'creates a world after its own image'. (Marx and Engels 1967:84)
In their defensive posture, political vocabularies were conspicuous by their absence. Terms such as democracy, private property, equality, elections and so on were never mentioned. The recurrent phrase was 'peace and stability'. The theme of nationalism, so dominant among American, African and the pre- war Southeast Asian Chinese businessmen (see Seider 1974: 807; Heilbroner 1964: 30-31; Stokes 1974: 557-579; Wong 1975: 117-120), was raised by just two spinners. B1 mentioned this to dismiss the idea:
'In Hong Kong it is money [that accounts for executive turnover]. In South Korea, you can say you are working for your country. But here? (He shrugged)."
The sole local-born spinner, B4, admitted to some 'nationalistic' sentiment:
'I would want a sense of belonging and like Hong Kong to develop. I wish to try to create a society of my own identiy,
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