HK political academy puts spotlight on ethics

Courses on instilling a high standard of political ethics will be a major focus of the Hong Kong Academy of Politics and Public Policy in its second year of operation, the institute’s Honorary Patron Ronny Tong Ka-wah said on Thursday.

HKAPP, one of the city’s leading institutes with the sole purpose of cultivating local political leaders, will now put more emphasis on political ethics.

The worsening political atmosphere in the special administrative region in recent years brought this change, explained Tong, who is also a non-official member of the chief executive’s top policy advisory body — the Executive Council.

He cited the oath-taking saga and this week’s bizarre phone-snatching incident in the legislature as examples. Tong said these showed some politicians lack ethics; moreover, they did not respect the establishment or different voices in society.

On Tuesday, Democratic Party lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung snatched a government officer’s personal cellphone in the Legislative Council. He then went to the men’s room for a while to check the phone’s contents before returning it 15 minutes later. Police are investigating the incident.

In October 2016 two legislators-elect — Sixtus Leung Chung-hang and Yau Waiching — deviated from the approved text and used derogatory language to insult the Chinese nation while taking oaths at the LegCo swearing-in ceremony. They were later disqualified as lawmakers.

Tong said regardless of how important people considered their political cause, they still had to respect political systems and other people. The absence of such respect would not mend social rifts in Hong Kong society, Tong added.

Tong’s remarks come three days after the central government’s top liaison officer in Hong Kong questioned the motives of some local politicians.

Wang Zhimin, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR, said it was not ethical to be anti-establishment while working within the establishment.

Making the remarks when visiting LegCo on Monday, Wang urged Hong Kong people, especially the younger generation, to learn more about the country’s political systems.

HKAPP provides one year of institutional training via a cross-sector, trans-partisan platform for individuals who aspire to govern. Its first batch of students — 29 in total — will graduate in June this year.

Tong said the institute will decrease its HK$28,000 tuition fee by 10 to 15 percent for the upcoming semester, which starts in September, in a bid to attract more interest.