A Leg-Up on the Competition?

Regina Ip gamely showing off her matching boots to host Stephen Chan

The race for the next chief executive of Hong Kong is already more interesting.

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee made an appearance on Commercial Radio this morning and the visit was captured on Facebook Live.

The host, Stephen Chan Chi-wan has been getting each of the candidates to do something different to show another side of them, like having Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and John Tsang Chun-wah take off their glasses.

Carrie Lam had trouble using her Octopus to Ap Lei Chau

However, Ip didn't have any because she claims she can still see quite well. Nevertheless the observant Chan noted that Ip's outfit, footwear and handbag were all matching, in a peacock blue.

She obliged, showing off the handbag and then pushed her chair back before holding up her leg with her hands to present the same blue coloured heeled boots.

Talk about trying to get a leg-up on the competition.

Her assistant later revealed the boots were bought at Lane Crawford for HK$1,000 two years ago. Interestingly no price quoted for the handbag.

Who else has matching clothes, shoes and handbags except maybe the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall?

Lam recently moved to Convention Plaza in Wan Chai

After flashing some leg, Ip held up two Octopus cards, one for parking and one (we should note for seniors) to use on the MTR.

Chan asked her if she knew how to take the MTR to which she confidently replied affirmative.

It was a jab at Lam, who didn't seem to know how to use her Octopus card when she took the MTR to Ap Lei Chau to visit the community there.

Lam also bizarrely revealed that she ran out of toilet paper after recently moving into a serviced apartment in the Convention Centre, and that she took a taxi in the middle of the night to get some.

There were questions of how much carbon footprint she generated from her quest for TP, but isn't it more important that Lam be more familiar with the MTR?

If she doesn't really know how to use the MTR, how can she even begin to understand the issues the average Hong Kong person faces on a daily basis?

Commuters wait for many trains before getting on at rush hour

Every CE candidate should take the MTR at rush hour and see what it's like. It's no joke that one has to wait at least four or five trains to go by before getting on, and how commuters are squashed in there like sardines.

And they should visit people who live in subdivided flats, spending up to half of their salary on rent even though the living conditions are appalling. Why is it that when banks lend money for mortgages, the applicant cannot spend more than half their salary on the monthly payment back to the bank, but this rule is not applied to rents?

And they should see how much waste is generated on a daily basis, how many items are not recycled, and see how much food is dumped from households, restaurants and hotels, and how non-profits are trying to salvage a tiny fraction of that food, but more needs to be done.

The list could go on and on.

But we really have to give to Ip today for having a bit more fun, being game to show off what a fashion plate she is, though she did have to use her hand to raise her leg, which made us wonder where her core is...

Blatant Switch

Stephen Chan is not only chief executive of Commercial Radio but host too

Last night as I sat down to dinner in a hotel restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui east, across from us was Stephen Chan Chi-wan, head of Commercial Radio and now morning show radio host.

He looked jovial with his dining partner as they powered through dinner and left before we did even though they sat down after us.

Nevertheless he is currently in the hot seat after he removed popular morning show talk show host Lee Wei-ling with himself and placed her in the evening slot starting on Monday.

Lee is a well-known government critic and very popular. However, there are rumours that part of the deal for Commercial Radio to renew its broadcast license in 2016 was to remove Lee from the prime-time morning show, though the station denies this.

Not only was that an outrage, but how Chan did it which is even more out of line.

Oh Monday during her debut on her evening program, Lee claimed chief executive Chan had threatened to fire her in a series of text messages if she did not accept the new position.

"At one point, he said that if I did not go to the press conference that day [announcing the change], he would have no choice but to fire me," Lee said on Monday evening during her show with co-host Elizabeth Wong Kit-wai.

However Chan said the message, which said he would "have no option but to end our contractual relationship" if she did not take the evening hosting duties, was an attempt to ensure she confirmed arrangements for a meeting and press conference.

"Briefing her on the new assignment in my office, I felt that she was comfortable accepting it -- and had agreed to attend a working meeting and a press conference scheduled for the afternoon," Chan said.

However later on Friday he could not get in touch with her and sent her a text message at 2.39pm demanding that she get back to him by 3pm. And if she did not, he texted that he would consider that she had rejected the new assignment.

"Management-wise I needed to know," Chan said. "If she was not accepting the move I would have to explain it to the media."

In the end Lee did reply 14 minutes later that she accepted the new job, but would not attend the press conference.

Chan says Lee was moved for strategic and administrative reasons (how much more vague can one get!), but Lee believes it was politically motivated.

"I do not think it would be surprising to conclude Leung Chun-ying's administration dislikes me," Lee said, adding that government officials had "warned" her to "be careful of her job".

Lee said she "lost control" after being told of the move and didn't want to attend the press conference as she was "emotionally reluctant to face my bosses" and "did not want to cry in front of the public".

While she admitted it would be "difficult" to continue as a presenter, she felt "obliged to uphold freedom of speech". "I hope the public will stand by my side," she said.

The way Chan went about the shuffling Lee around may have been a ploy to rush her into a situation where she didn't have enough time to think things through so he could still retain her for her popularity but just not have her in the prime-time slot.

Either way he did it in the most insensitive way possible -- but then again many bosses in Hong Kong can be like this in order to have their cake and and eat it too. What he did was threatening and possibly illegal. Who gives someone 21 minutes to decide whether they want to keep their job or not?

In the end Lee is now in a difficult position, but much like Ricky Wong Wai-kay, whose HKTV failed in its bid for a free-to-air TV license, she will become yet another defiant hero in the eyes of Hong Kong people.