District visits to continue: Leung

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Sunday pledged continuation of district visits to gauge public opinion despite repeated attempts by some people to disrupt public order.

Those who preach democracy and freedom should in no way obstruct direct exchanges between the people and government officials, he wrote in a Sunday update of his official blog.

Earlier in the day, Leung attended a forum at Tin Ching Community Hall in Tin Shui Wai, accompanied by Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing and Secretary For Security TK Lai. Opponents and supporters of the administration clashed outside the community hall, which led to the arrest of four people.

At the forum, the Chief Executive said that the city’s anti-graft watchdog, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, should not be used as a political tool and urged complainants that triggered investigations on members of his political team to apologize for the groundless accusations.

Government lawyers and the ICAC have decided against pressing charges against Franklin Lam Fan-keung and Barry Cheung Chun-yuen following two separate investigations. Nonetheless, they had respectively quit the Executive Council (ExCo) after and before the conclusion of the probe.

Leung said that the complainants owed the two former ExCo members apologies as he made an opening speech at the first of a series of three town hall meetings at Tin Shui Wai.

He also criticized the reports of a newspaper, which described Lam’s resignation as “one more man is down in Leung’s cabinet”, for being a “wisdom of repugnance” that was unfair to Lam and the government.

Leung said that the political team is now facing the most rigid and comprehensive mechanism for the declaration of interests in the city’s history. He was referring to the new set of guidelines on declaration of interests by politically appointed officials that were announced earlier this month.

Regarding a Mong Kok incident involving primary school teacher Alpais Lam which aroused public concern over the Police force’s attitude in discharging duties, Leung said fair complaint and supervising mechanisms were in place, but that no one should abuse their use. Compared with other jurisdictions, Hong Kong Police have generally exercised restraint in handling public processions, he added.