Landlord, please ‘butt out’: Hong Kong farmers refuse to move despite court notice to vacate
Protesters from Mapopo Community Farm make bamboo model in response to move to develop site as part of new town project
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 March, 2016, 2:13pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 March, 2016, 4:31pm
Allen Au-yeung
Two farmers protested on Wednesday morning against their landlord’s decision to take back the land they were using, saying the move would destroy their way of life in the New Territories.
The farmers, who are from Mapopo Community Farm in the village of Ma Shi Po in Fanling, have received a court notice to vacate the land by Wednesday, but have refused to leave.
With the help of a handful of friends and supporters, the farmers made a bamboo model of a pair of buttocks, standing at about the height of a man, and placed it near a path to the land as a protest prop.
The model, according to the protesting farmers, was a symbol of their frustration at Henderson Land Development and its subsidiary, Best Galaxy Limited, which is currently seeking possession of the land for development as part of a new town project in the New Territories.
One of the farmers, 30 year-old Becky Au Hei-man, said her grandfather arrived in Hong Kong from the mainland China in the 1940s and paid rent to the then-landlord to occupy and farm the land.
According to Au, who grew up in the area, the dispute dated back to 2007, when Best Galaxy, the new landlord, stopped accepting rent from her family. It obtained a court judgment last year to regain possession of the land from her father.
Au said she and her father did not want to leave and had turned down an offer of HK$60,000 in compensation from their landlord last year.
“A lot of development is directed at farmland in the New Territories. It is difficult to find a piece of land elsewhere to start over again. There are no policies in Hong Kong to protect farmland and farmers,” said Au, who felt she was being forced to leave the land and abandon her farming lifestyle.
“We have been here for three generations. It took us a long time to establish ourselves ... It’s hard. Moving a farm is not like moving a house,” she said.
Three police officers arrived near the farm before 11am on Wednesday to observe the situation. They soon left the area, and no bailiffs were seen near the land before noon as it began to rain.
In response to inquiries from the Post, a spokeswoman for Henderson said a representative would arrive at the site soon to communicate with the farmers.
