Villager rights deserve protection, but they can't trump all else
Ian Brownlee says while indigenous villager rights should be upheld, it must be done so in a way that does not degrade the environment in the surrounding country parks or flout the rules
The development secretary opened a can of worms with his suggestion that residential development could take place in country parks. However, the more complex issue is what to do with the "enclaves" that are surrounded by country parks, but not included as part of them.
A town hall meeting in Sai Kung on Saturday seems to have brought several parties together, and reports indicated that "villagers' rights" was part of the discussion.
To put this in perspective, we need to look at what other common law countries have done for their indigenous peoples in recent decades. In Canada, Australia and New Zealand, there has been a massive change in the degree of recognition given to the history of settlement and land rights of indigenous peoples. Many of the mistakes of the colonial British have been rectified by returning land or through monetary compensation.
Judgments in these places would no doubt provide precedents for our own courts, if and when they get to consider issues relating to Hong Kong's indigenous people.
The Town Planning Board need not permit village houses as of right in sensitive enclaves
Indigenous people are defined as those whose families were here before the British arrived, and many families can trace their history back 400 years or more.
