Hail! "Long Hair"

I haven't voted at an election since 1977 (that's more than 30 years ago!) because I have not been in Sri Lanka during a general elections since then. But, in addition to being a news junkie, I am also a political junkie, in a small way, and Hong Kong politics interest me greatly. As a permanent resident, I am eligible to vote here in the New Territories East constituency, and I couldn't wait till September 7 to cast my vote for Long Hair.

Why Long Hair? He's the most principled, down to earth politician in Hong Kong, fighting for poor people, never fearing the wrath of the administration, the pro-business Liberal Party, the boot licking, Beijing-leaning politicians, and is notable for his Che Guevara T-shirt instead of the dark suits that most politicians prefer. He lives in a tiny public council flat and keeps only about US$1,000 of his salary, giving the rest away for good causes. (I think a Legco member makes about HK$60,000 [US$7,500] per month.)

Long hair does have a name: it's Leung Kwok-hung, and he got 44,763 votes (one of them mine!), enough to make him the second highest vote getter in the constituency and ensuring him four more years in Legco. Donald Tsang, our Chief Executive, and the pro-business lobbies must be sweating, more so because two more members of Long Hair's party (including one nicknamed "Mad Dog") won Legco seats. We are in for interesting times.

A Long Hair poster

Long Hair at home

One of Long Hair's biggest fans is Daisann McLane, whose wonderful blog "Learning Cantonese" http://daisann.com/ chronicles the election campaign of Long Hair. In fact, Daisann went to the extent of doing some street campaigning for him, passing out leaflets in Tai Po and becoming a human billboard in Sai Kung. All the photos here have been "borrowed"from her blog site.

Daisann becomes a "human billboard" in Sai Kung