Only the truth about what really happened to bookseller Lee Po will calm the jitters in Hong Kong
John Chan says total honesty from Beijing on the case would do more to win over local hearts and minds than any propaganda war it can mount against seekers of Hong Kong independence
The bits of information provided by Lee Po since his return from the mainland more than three months after he mysteriously vanished have not helped to clear the suspicion and widely held belief that he did not voluntarily smuggle himself across the border.
Fog of uncertainty descends on Hong Kong in wake of bookseller ‘mess’
When his wife filed a missing person report after he went missing, Lee phoned and faxed his wife from the mainland telling her that he went “by means of his own choice”. The fact that there is no record of his passing through immigration control on leaving Hong Kong last December raised doubts about his statement.
It is hard for ordinary people to take what Lee said as the whole truth and stop asking questions
Thus, the first question is: who was that person who suggested or invited him to go to the mainland and did he go under duress?
The second question is: if it was suggested he go, or he was invited to go to sort out his employees’ plight, why would he not choose to do so through the normal border control checkpoint, like everyone else?
It is thus hard for ordinary people to take what Lee said as the whole truth and stop asking questions surrounding his mysterious disappearance and seemingly carefully staged reappearance.
It is even more difficult to ask people to put the matter to rest and stop the wild guessing that he did not go voluntarily.
