The B.C. NDP is calling for an apology to the party’s candidate in Richmond Centre after his English language skills were criticized on a call-in radio show by a former cultural adviser to the premier.
Dr. Kenneth Fung, chairman of the B.C. Premier’s Chinese Community Advisory Council, gave a fake name when he called in to a CKNW show on April 21 and told host Sean Leslie that NDP candidate Frank Huang “can’t really communicate in English.”
In a recording of the radio clip provided by the NDP, the caller, who says his name is Mike, suggests Leslie contact the NDP’s Frank Huang to “do an interview in English and see how good it is.”
The call demonstrates a “disturbing pattern of behaviour” on the part of the Liberals, said NDP Vancouver Mount-Pleasant candidate Jenny Kwan, who noted Huang is a new immigrant whose English skills are on par with some Liberal MLAs.
At a press conference Tuesday, Kwan said the Liberals have a history of supporters misrepresenting themselves on call-in shows and in letters to local newspapers. She also said the use of radio call-in shows was a tactic specifically identified to gain “quick wins” in the Liberals’ now-infamous ethnic voter strategy.
Kwan referenced former B.C. MLA Paul Reitsma who wrote letters to the editor under a pseudonym in his Parksville-Qualicum riding during the 1990s and former Liberal staffer Prem. Vinning, who misrepresented himself on a call-in TV show with then-premier Gordon Campbell in 2005.
“I think this is unacceptable behaviour,” Kwan said. “I am calling on the premier today to stand up and call Ken Fung to apologize … for his behaviour, to admit it was wrong to falsify his identity to attack an opponent and that it is wrong to question new immigrants in entering into public office in an election campaign.”
However the B.C. Liberals countered that Fung, a clinical associate professor at the University of B.C.’s school of population and public health, is not a member of the party and has served on advisory committees for premiers dating back to Mike Harcourt.
“Dr. Fung was acting on his own initiative and it is something that he is passionate about,” Liberal spokesman Sam Oliphant wrote in an email.
Fung, who is currently in France, admitted in an email to calling CKNW and giving a false name because he did not want any reprisal.
“My phone-in message is just to alert the media that NDP candidate have not done any media interview in English,” he wrote.
He added he is not a member of any federal or provincial political party and considered himself free of association with the government advisory committee when the legislature was dissolved on April 14 for the election campaign.
“My raising the concern of NDP candidate Frank Huang is my own initiative, has nothing to do with the B.C. Liberal. But the NDP slings mud and try to continuously link me with the B.C. Liberal.” Fung said he has supported the B.C. Liberals but has also donated money to NDP campaigns.
But Huang questioned Fung’s political independence in an interview in English Tuesday. He said Fung approached him in February about running as the B.C. Liberal candidate in Vancouver-Fraserview and that he said Huang would make an ideal candidate because he speaks Cantonese and Mandarin in addition to English.
“If he does not have strong connections to the Liberal party, how can he invite me to join the Liberal party as a candidate?” Huang said. He said Fung’s criticism of his language skills only shows a B.C. Liberal government would not be welcoming and supportive to new immigrants. Nor does it encourage new immigrants to become involved in public life.
“What does this attack mean? I think that people from Mainland China are not welcome in B.C. politics,” he said.
Fung has also raised concerns about Huang — former chief editor at Global Chinese Press and a former government employee in China — because he was a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Fung has argued Huang could be a security risk if elected.
The NDP have dismissed those concerns, saying it is often mandatory for public employees and members of the press in China to belong to the party.
“Many people from China who worked for the government were expected to join the (Communist) Party. Everyone knows this situation, including Dr. Fung, the premier’s Chinese adviser,” said Huang.
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