Eddie Chu Hoi-dick, the big election winner who vowed to challenge rural kingpins, has said he will be temporarily living away from home out of safety concerns. There are many enemies around him, he claimed.
Chu won 84,121 votes in the geographical constituency. But he warned that political violence exists in Hong Kong, claiming that he was threatened by a rural leader before the election.
“I’ll be more careful these days – I’ll observe the current developments and listen to information from sources,” he said on Commercial Radio on Tuesday. “I am not living at home at the moment – I moved to another place… because there are a lot of people who disagree with me living around me.”
After he was elected on Monday, he said he will target the top figures of powerful rural body Heung Yee Kuk. He vowed to expose the Kuk’s chairman Kenneth Lau Ip-keung and executive member Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, now both lawmakers.
Chu said he was trying to find out whether he would be safer from threats after being elected.
Small House Policy
A former journalist himself, Chu said he received information from someone in the indigenous community about another person illegally selling his right to build a house.
Under the Small House Policy, male indigenous villagers who are descendants of a male line from a recognised village in the New Territories may apply to build a small house on their own land at zero premium or on public land through a private treaty grant once during their lifetime. The right is non-transferable.
“[The source asked] do you really have the guts to reveal it? If you do I’ll give you everything,” Chu said. “If people trust me, there will be more opportunities to stand up and expose dangerous cases. Whether the lawmaker status can protect me depends on the situation, but I have the responsibility [to do so] if they trust me.”
Asked if he still believed that Hong Kong was a society of rule of law, he paused briefly and said: “I believe in Hong Kong people.”
“It is becoming more difficult to completely believe in law enforcement agencies, but Hong Kong people can still tell right from wrong – they will stand up and pressure law enforcement to take matters seriously,” he said.
Chu said he will not move back to the urban area, as he made a lot of effort to find a piece of land with the Choi Yuen Tsuen villagers – who were forced to move due to the Express Rail Link project crossing their land. Chu lives in Pat Heung, Yuen Long.
“We just grew our first batch of rice – we still haven’t eaten it,” he said.
