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 Martin Jacques at Hari's memorial stone in Highgate cemetery
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Race law victory in fight sparked by wife’s death
Widower welcomes Hong Kong legislation as tribute to Hari
A SEVEN-year fight by a Hampstead-based journalist to introduce race laws in Hong Kong came to an end this week as the former British colony brought in new anti-discrimination legislation.
Martin Jacques has been campaigning since his wife, Hari Veriah, died in a Hong Kong hospital in 2000.
In the last hours of her life, she told her husband she feared she was not receiving the care she needed because of ingrained racism at the hospital where she was being treated.
“I’m bottom of the pile here,” she had said. “I am Indian, while everyone else is Chinese.”
These words have lived with Mr Jacques ever since. The death became Hong Kong’s own Stephen Lawrence case, leading to a seven-year campaign to outlaw racial discrimination.
The new anti-discrimination legislation is the first time any Chinese territory has made such a law.
The couple had been seeing in the New Year of 2000 at their Hong Kong home, along with Highgate-based historian Eric Hobsbawn and his wife, when Hari had an epileptic fit. They had settled in the Far East 12 months earlier with their baby boy Ravi.
Mr Jacques rushed his wife to hospital, where she was examined. At 4.30am he went home to care for their son, but when he returned the next day his wife revealed her fears that she was not being well cared for – because of the colour of her skin. Just 24 hours later, she was dead.
The couple met in Hari’s home country, Malaysia, in 1993. She moved to London to complete her legal studies, and then landed a job with a Hong Kong law firm.
In Hong Kong, Hari’s knowledge of Cantonese and Malay helped her find work, while her husband, who had been deputy editor at the Independent newspaper and editor of Marxism Today, wrote a book.
But their dream of making a new life for themselves in Hong Kong was marred by the day-to-day racism Hari faced.
“It became clear that Hari was being treated differently,” Mr Jacques said. “It was a common occurrence. Hari began to recognise racism but she did not complain about it. She told me: ‘If I am in a shop, people do not serve me if they can help it. They are rude to me in restaurants. Taxis refuse to stop. People call me names in Cantonese, not realising I understand what they are saying’. Of course, not all people were like this, but it happened frequently.”
Nearly 11 months after Hari’s death, Mr Jacques told an inquest of Hari’s fears. He said: “I mentioned Hari had said to me she was the ‘bottom of the pile’. The following day, it was across all the papers. I had broken a taboo. People simply did not talk about race.”
And then he started receiving letters from Hong Kong-born Indians. “They would tell me all the things that had happened to them because of their ethnicity. Hari’s words had given them strength.”
He was approached by a new campaign group, Hong Kong Against Racial Discrimination, to talk about his experience at a public meeting.
He spoke on behalf of groups in Hong Kong who suffer daily prejudice – Filipinos, Indonesians and Malaysians, the majority of whom are female and work in poorly-paid domestic jobs.
After a sustained campaign, supported by Asian newspapers, legislation finally came into force this week that makes racism a crime in Hong Kong.
It is a fitting tribute to his wife, says Mr Jacques, although nothing will ever ease the pain of her loss. He is still pursing a negligence action against the hospital where she died.
He said: “I can just about cope with the grief now but nothing will ever make it better. The death of an intimate is something you carry with you forever.”
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