Celebrity golfers should stay out of Hong Kong housing issues

Paul Stapleton says top golfers ought to stick to sport and the Hong Kong government to common sense on the issue of whether the Fanling golf course should be sacrificed to alleviate Hong Kong’s housing crisis

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It has been proposed that part of the Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling could be developed for housing. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 3:04pm, 4 Feb 2018Updated: 5:27pm, 4 Feb 2018

Somehow celebrities have come to hold a privileged position in society so that just by virtue of their brand, they often gain the spotlight on issues that go far beyond their expertise. Movie stars, whose expertise is in the area of pretending they are people who they are not while reciting lines in front of a camera, sometimes become spokespersons for certain causes, such as minority rights. They also frequently lend their names to companies, such as brands of coffee.

Against this backdrop, we witness the comments made by several celebrity golfers on whether parts of the Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling should be converted to land for housing. As noted above, consulting celebrities on their opinions on issues outside their expertise has become commonplace and newsworthy. In this case, the expertise is the ability to strike a rather small, hard ball with a club with such impressive accuracy that it drops into a hole in a minimum of strokes. However, a large amount of land must first be cleared of trees and planted with grass to provide the playing field.

We learn that Spanish golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez asked in reference to building housing on the course at Fanling, “Why can’t they find land elsewhere to build their houses?” English golfer Ian Poulter added, “If it happened it would be tragic. Simply tragic.”

Tragic indeed. But these celebrity golfers, with little understanding of the local context have chosen the wrong tragedy. Unlike Rory McIlroy, who wisely declines comments on political issues, they waded into a local issue that they know little about. Surely a visit to a subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po would give their notions of tragedy some perspective.

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Hong Kong’s housing crisis has pushed people into cramped living conditions, such as this subdivided flat in Mong Kok. Photo: Dickson Lee