Elected
After about two weeks after arriving in Hong Kong, we temporarily moved to the Centre for the Society and Religion or CIRC, which is located at the Maryknoll Convent School compound. It’s a red-brick building on a small hill in the corner of Boundary Street and Waterloo Road, diagonal to St. Theresa’s Church. We were preparing or the IYCS Asian Session our Asian Council as they call it now, a gathering of members from over 10 Asian countries who would analyse, deliberate and decide on key objectives for the IYCS Asia for next three years. This meeting also decide on who to carry on the coordination of regional activities for the development of this student movement in Asia. They needed a team to do so, which they called the Asian Team.
On the first floor we had rooms with metal bunker beds. Some of the first persons to arrive there were me and a member from African team, a tall Kenyan. A team of Hong Kong students were helping to organize logistics. This was when I first met Fr. Joseph Naliath, a Salesian Priest from Calcutta. He was probably in his later thirties. My first interactions with him were friendly and pleasant. We got along. He and I somehow knew we were to become the first members of the Asian Team. The outgoing team, Lek, Zita and Fr. Chalerm had plans to leave the Team. Lek was to get married in October. So, they needed someone to take over the work. Their plans for a full team to succeed right after they leave did not work out well. While Victor and Fr. Joe were the confirmed members (yet to be further confirmed during the Asian Session), Victor from Bangladesh was not going to be present during the Session. I was the odd one. I was the replacement candidate. But I was the only lay member ready to start the work right after the Asian Session.
The theme of the session was Up Up with People. A white t-shirt with this logo in green was prepared for this meeting. And there was a song entitled Up Up with People to go along. During this Session, we all learned two songs, Up Up with People and I Have a Dream by ABBA. Fr. Chalerm loved the latter. So, all of us, whether we liked it or not, kept singing these two songs over and over again, until some of us were quite sick of them. But everyone put up a brave and happy face and sang along.
It was during this period I first travelled to Central, the central financial district located in the Hong Kong island. We all took CMB or China Motor Bus 101 (need to check this) from Waterloo Street which soon arrived at the Cross Harbour Tunnel. Soon the entered the tunnel and we were crossing Hong Kong Harbour under it towards Centra. I was trying to imagine the structure of this tunnel under the sea. Is it strong enough? Will water come in? All sort of thoughts. When we arrived in Central, we visited key landmarks in this busy district, even then filled on that Sunday with Filipina domestic helpers. We were given money for lunch. It was for the first time I was buying my own lunch. Prior to this, I was eating at home or with someone else who were providing meals. We were at the Maxims Fast Food across Exchange Square. I saw the price of a set meal was 16 Hong Kong Dollars. I quickly calculated and realized it’s a lot of money in Sri Lankan Rupees then. It was one the hardest decision I had to make on that day–to pay that sort of money for a lunch.
At the end of the Asian Session, Victor was “elected” in absentia for the Asian Team. Joe Naliath was elected as the Chaplain. There was a small deliberation on me. Rosy and Shevan, representing Sri Lanka fully backed me and lobbied on my behalf. The Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalis backed my nomination and at last I was elected in a very awkward manner. I was elected because no one objected to me being elected. In fact no one really voted. It was election by consensus. It was one of the most awkward moments in my life. The outgoing Asian Team did not really back me. Nor they opposed me being elected. They just wanted the participants of the session to take the responsibility of me being elected of me being elected. It was a relief for me. I could at least plan my life now.
Soon after the Session, Fr. Joe Naliath left for Calcutta. A few weeks later, Lek left. Gradually, all of them would leave. I formally lodged my application for an employment visa at the Immigration Department Tower in Wan Chai. Irene Mak from Hong Kong, always accompanied me to the Immigration to help me. She did most of the talking on my behalf. Irene was a former YCS member who, upon graduating from the Chinese University has started working a teacher. Irene was also a member of the Board of Directors of IYCS Asia Limited, the legal entity in Hong Kong. So, in that capacity, she accompanied me to those painstaking and uncomfortable encounters with bureaucratic Immigration Officers at the Immigration Head Office in Wan Chai.
On October 14th 1988, my visitor visa expired. My employment visa application was still pending, and I had to leave Hong Kong to closest logical location–Bangkok.