10 years ago, I had the honour of sitting beside Paddy Ashdown during a dinner function. When I asked him what liberal democracy was, he answered in 3 words 'Liberty, Fairness, Tolerance'. In the weeks leading to this evening, I asked several people - is Liberal Democracy as understood and practised today fit to meet the challenges of the 21st Century?
Chinese Liberal Democrats are pleased that there will be a motion to be debated at Spring Conference on Hong Kong. Over the last 2 years we had supported Emergency motions on Hong Kong, competing unsuccessfully for votes in ballots where there were many other worthy causes. However, this year a motion on Hong Kong is firmly on the Agenda, set down for debate on Saturday 14 March at 9.30am.
Dr George Lee, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Westminster North recently filed a complaint to the BBC requesting that the news channel stopped using images of Chinese people as the backdrop whenever they reported on the Coronavirus. This was adding to the fear and prejudice shown against the British Chinese community and fuelling hatred and racial incidents. Below was the reply received from the BBC dated 10 March 2020: "Dear Dr Lee
"With the world facing the biggest public health crisis of the twenty-first century, what the UK desperately needs are compassionate communities that look after one another, regardless of people's race and background.
There has been a sharp increase of racist hate crime throughout the country, ranging from verbal incidents, intimidation and even physical attacks, towards the British Chinese community and other East Asian communities, including international students from China and other countries in South East Asia. Although there are examples of those who stood up against the perpretrators and defended people who were being abused, it is distressing to see the upsurge of hate crime arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
ME: Dr Yeow Poon, you have been the Chair of the Chinese Community Centre in Birmingham since 1995, founded the England China Business Forum in 2013 and are also a trustee of the Chinese Welfare Trust national charity. Why was it necessary to set up the Covid19 Anti-Racism Action Group (CARG)?
