Tag: CY Leung

Will Legco Hear the People Sing?

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The atmosphere is noisy but the hot weather is keep tensions low as crowded outside the Legislative Council public entrance are hundreds of people segregated by barricades into a pro-china side and a pro-democracy side. Reporters armed with still and video cameras fill the neutral between the two camps, others tweet as they wander looking for comment and reaction in the respective camps to the debate taking place inside about the proposed refrom of the selection procedure for the Chief Executive of Hong Koing

On the left closest to Legislative Council Road the pro real democracy protestors are stationed next to the long standing Tin Mei protest village. On the right towards Tamar Park, the Pro-China supporters parade up and down the ramp from the park in groups waving large Chinese flags as they do so. By the late afternoon, the protest numbers have almost doubled as many arrive wearing red or yellow to indicate their views.

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On the Pro-China side, supporters wearing numbered shirts and hats hide beneath dark umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun, almost like vampires. The zone is crammed with mass produced banners, while ideologically sound music at rock concert volumes seeks to deafen the chants coming from the other side. With speakers strategically placed to cause irritation and annoyance among those looking to man the pro-democracy barricades. Along the 80m frontline of barricades bordering the two sections, the pro-China camp in an almost workman like and passionless manner taunt and sneer, pulling faces, insulting and repeatedly mockingly gesturing that they cant hear any of the comments from the Pro-democracy side.

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In contrast to the red of the Pro-china zone of the protest, the symbolic yellow and black umbrella banners festoon the pro-democracy half. Although there are not as many loudspeakers to amplify their voices, the passion of their belief resonates loudly as they seek to communicate their message, their want for a real democracy. Selective policing denies the pro Democracy camp the poles and sticks, so the banners are hung on the barricades for the Pro-Chinese to see. Familiar faces from the Umbrella protests gather in the shade to chant ‘say no to fake democracy’ just loud enough to encourage more to join and to spark irritation amongst those on the otherside. Many of todays chants were led, as usual, by Eric the shirtless artist channeling the support of his fellow protestors as he spat out insults and words of disapproval, the booing of the pro-China side only stoking the fires of democracy.

http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/UMHK-Legco-17-June-2015/50005915_LSmKDh#!i=4139400674&k=p3JF4Qv

25th Anniversary of the Basic Law – CY Leung Attempts to Rewrite History

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At the ceremony for the 25th Anniversary of the Basic Law, CY Leung claims that the authors of the Basic Law never intended candidates for the city’s leadership elections to be put forward by the Hong Kong public. Martin Lee Chu-ming, one of the drafting committee members and founding chairman of the Democratic Party, said Leung was “factually wrong”.

Chief Executive, CY Leung, has since retracted part of a statement in which he said that civic nomination was never mentioned during the drafting of the Basic Law.

Mr Leung originally issued a statement on Sunday afternoon again accusing pan-democratic lawmakers of wrongly suggesting that the Basic Law allows for civic nomination for electing chief executives.

Just three hours later, Mr Leung reissued his statement, but this time paragraph two said only that two of five proposals for selecting the chief executive did not mention civic nomination, rather than all five proposals as stated in the earlier version.

On Saturday, veteran democrat Martin Lee, a member of the Basic Law drafting committee, presented documents which he said showed that the idea of civil nomination had in fact been proposed.

Mr Lee said among the five proposals raised during the drafting, proposal three stated that someone could be a chief executive candidate if they were nominated by 50 hong kong permanent residents. He said this showed that the spirit of civic nomination had been suggested.

It’s sad to see the man ‘elected’ to represent Hong Kong doing his best to destroy it, all for his personal gain.

Chief Executive’s Revised Statement on “Civic Nomination”

In response to recent allegation that the concept of “civic nomination” had been raised during the drafting of the Basic Law, the Chief Executive, Mr Leung Chun-ying, issued the following statement:

Yesterday (April 4) when I addressed the “Seminar for the 25th Anniversary of the Promulgation of the Basic Law”, I pointed out that “during the drafting of the Basic Law, the ‘consultation document’ released in 1988 has listed five proposals on methods for selecting the Chief Executive. The two proposals of selecting the Chief Executive by universal suffrage have not mentioned ‘civic nomination’.”

When the Basic Law was endorsed and promulgated on April 4, 1990, Article 45 reads: “The method for selecting the Chief Executive shall be specified in the light of the actual situation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. The ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures.”

If someone said the concept of “civic nomination” had been raised during the drafting of the Basic Law, this exactly illustrates that “civic nomination” and “nomination by a nominating committee” are totally different concepts. After comprehensive consultation by the Basic Law Drafting Committee, “nomination by a nominating committee” was eventually stated in the Basic Law. Hence for those who recently said that “nomination by a nominating committee” could be interpreted as “civic nomination”, they are just “guessing and taking advantage of the literal meaning of words” and contravening the Basic Law.

Last year, some members of the Legislative Council insisted that “civic nomination” was indispensable in selecting the Chief Executive by universal suffrage. If today these members insist on such saying, they know full well that they are contravening the Basic Law and are just creating problems. The result is they would take away the rights of Hong Kong people to select the Chief Executive by “one person, one vote” in 2017.

Ends/Sunday, April 5, 2015 Issued at HKT 19:38

Read the official release here  (It should be noted that this is the revised version of CY Leung original statement)

Hong Kong’s Basic Law is available in English and Chinese here

 

Why the Secrecy?

Obfuscation and non-answers cast doubt on honesty and truthfulness. So why the secrecy? If the opinion poll is accurate and CY Leung is happy enough with it to quote the results and use it to justify his policies… Why won’t the government publish details of poll it says shows majority of public back its universal suffrage proposal?

In Legco Frederick Fung wanted to know why and asked the following questions. He received a written non-reply by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Raymond Tam, in the Legislative Council on March 18:

Question:
It has been reported that on February 28 this year, the Chief Executive (CE) told reporters that the results of a public opinion survey recently commissioned by the Government showed that more than half of Hong Kong people were agreeable to the selection of CE by universal suffrage in 2017 to be implemented in accordance with the Decision made by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on August 31 last year on issues such as the selection of CE of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by universal suffrage. Yet, he did not provide any details of the public opinion survey. Some members of the public have complained to me that the Government has recently disseminated results of public opinion surveys to the media in a selective or incomprehensive manner from time to time, making it difficult for them to judge the credibility of such survey results. They also query that the employment of such a practice by the Government was an attempt to manipulate public opinion.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the details of the aforesaid public opinion survey regarding (i) the organisation commissioned to conduct the survey, (ii) the content of the questionnaire, (iii) the method and form of the survey, (iv) the number of respondents and the response rate, (v) the distribution of age, gender and political attitude of the respondents, (vi) the raw data, and (vii) the analytical results of the survey data;

(2) whether it has assessed the consequences of CE selectively disseminating a particular result of the aforesaid public opinion survey, including whether it has resulted in the credibility of the survey results being questioned and the Government being accused of manipulating public opinion; if it has not assessed, of the reasons for that; and

(3) whether it will consider disclosing concomitantly the relevant details when it disseminates the results of Government-commissioned public opinion surveys in future; if it will not, of the reasons for that?

Reply:
President,
In consultation with the Chief Executive’s Office and the Central Policy Unit (CPU), our reply to the questions raised by Hon Fung is as follows.

The opinion poll which the Chief Executive referred to on February 28 was conducted by a professional agency commissioned by the CPU. The CPU commissions professional research agencies to conduct opinion polls on major social, economic and political issues from time to time. Such polls are for Government’s internal reference only, and relevant details are generally not made public.

link to the official Lego release http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201503/18/P201503170712.htm

Chief Executive Petition Tuesday – 4 November, 2014

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Every Tuesday while Legco’s Executive Council is in session anyone can present a petition about anything to the Chief Executive. Turn-up out side his office early enough to be in the 30 or so people admitted and you can have your say.

Whether he listens or just throws them in the first available bin is open to question. Although if you pay him $50million it probably helps – but then you wouldn’t need Petition Tuesday would you!

Today among the four groups of petitioners was Kong Man Chan and his band of blue ribbon confederates with a petition calling for the arrest of the organisers of the street protests signed by 2809 people. When asked, he offered no details as to whether the identities of the signatories had been confirmed. If you want to sign his petition or hear what he has to say you can reach him on [email protected] or here www.facebook.com/kongman.chan.10

Editors Note: bc finds the blue ribbons ‘Support the police’ slogan – which would imply that they respect law and order, at odds with the actions of blue ribbon supporters who assault and instigates violent attacks against people who disagree with their viewpoint.

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http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2014/CE-Peitition-Tuesday-4/45461268_cXmXnq#!i=3667540537&k=qtsbxxS

Letter to Hong Kong String Orchestra, re your patron CY Leung

Dear Ms Jue Yao, Prof. Anna Pao-Sohmen, Dr. Dame Rosanna WongYick-ming

As founding members of the Hong Kong String Orchestra I’d like to congratulate you on what you have achieved. bc magazine has given the orchestra lots of free coverage, listings and write-ups for your concerts over the years.

However, yesterday we received an email asking for free coverage of your upcoming charity concert – regrettably bc magazine will not be giving exposure to your concert, however noble the cause.

The recent speech by the HK String Orchestra’s honorary patron CY Leung that those Hongkongers who earn less than $14,000/month should be considered second class citizens and have no say in the future of Hong Kong is deeply offensive.

The median monthly income in Hong Kong is $14,000 and a couple of million people work hard long hours doing jobs vital to Hong Kong every day. Every one of those would love to earn over $14,000 – they don’t – but without them Hong Kong ceases to function.

The people CY Leung insults and degrades with his comments are the heart of the orchestra that is Hong Kong, The soloist or conductor are often changed – but without the violin section, or the cellos the music cannot be performed and enjoyed as the composer intended and the soloist is exactly that… solo, alone playing for herself.

Would you have a violinist on stage purely because they were rich, even if they couldn’t play a note and their inability would destroy your performance?

Your charity concerts claim to help those in need or is it purely the charity of the rich ‘be grateful for what we give you’ so you the donor can sleep better at night? Think on this, I expect most of those your charity performances ‘help’ earn less than $14000/month – are their opinions about Hong Kong and it’s future (or on any subject) irrelevant because they are old, sick, victims of crime or abuse… Or will you only give them charity if they mindlessly think and act as you tell them?

While CY Leung is the HK String Orchestra’s patron, I regret to inform you that bc magazine cannot write about the orchestra or its concerts – with all your wealthy financial backers, I doubt you’ll care what one English language magazine does. But if your charity comes from the heart, rather than from selfish need, perhaps you should. Hong Kong has thrived because each person matters, and will continue to thrive if we remember that.

Regards

Simon Durrant – Editor

www.facebook.com/HongKongStringOrchestra

www.stringorchestra.org.hk

China National Day: Flag Raising Ceremony – 1 October, 2014

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