Civility v patriotism in Hong Kong courts

I learned something new about Hong Kong this month: in this great city, in our law-abiding society, if you really must burn something, better that it be your neighbour's dog than the national flag.

On February 7, Koo Sze-yiu, a 66-year-old construction worker, was jailed for nine months for spray-painting and then burning both the Chinese and Hong Kong flags on two occasions. No one was injured.

A week later, Mok Chung-ting, a 30-year-old computer technician, was sentenced for pouring paint thinner on a neighbor's dog and then setting it on fire. The dog, Siu Wong, was so badly burned it had to be put down. Mok was jailed for eight months.

It sometimes feels these days like we are teetering, always trying to balance between civility and most Hongkongers' good-faith attempts to become one with the motherland. It is a constant battle, for milk powder and property, over how to queue for a taxi or what to teach in school.

Our courts found themselves faced with this tug of war this month, and in the latest round of civility versus patriotism, civility lost. The structural integrity of a few two-by-three-metre pieces of red canvas was effectively deemed more important than the right not to have one's furry companion burned to death by the short-tempered guy down the hall who can't sleep.

I am neither an animal rights campaigner nor an anti-China activist; I own a Hong Kong flag, but not a dog. And I realise flags are no ordinary pieces of canvas, that they stand for something, and represent an important bond among people. But so did Siu Wong. I know what boundless joy a dog can bring its owner. I do not know anyone who has ever come home from a long day at work and been comforted by the eager greeting of a white five-petal bauhinia in swaying motion on a red background.