No compromise on the issue of national integrity

Lau Nai-keung says that the offensive antics displayed by some legislators-elect when taking their oaths is only the beginning, and separatism has to be stamped out in LegCo

Taking an oath is a very serious matter. This is why that for many important public positions there is a swearing-in procedure where office holders are required by law to pledge their allegiance to the country. According to the Basic Law, all elected legislators are stipulated to take an oath of allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR of the People’s Republic of China. Some dissident politicians, notably Wong Yuk-man and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung previously tried to get around this. But ultimately they had to take it before they were allowed to attend Legislative Council meetings.

This time, some of the newly elected separatist lawmakers made it known they would do something during the ceremony to demonstrate their political defiance. It is part of their twisted logic that they want to join the system just to subvert it. On the other hand, the central government has also declared that no separatists should be allowed in the Legislative Council. One crucial way to identify a separatist is whether he or she will publicly swear his or her allegiance to the country’s special administrative region. This is the acid test.

To an evil person, public declaration of any kind means nothing. These separatists can still carry on with their old ways even after an open pledge to serve the SAR of the People’s Republic of China. After being formally admitted to the lawmaking body, whatever they say and do there is protected by law and free from prosecution. To get rid of them will require a two-thirds majority which is clearly impossible. The acid test is after all not that effective, although it still has to be there — even just for the record.

As expected, the seven elected separatists all displayed certain anomalies in the presentation of their oaths, but only the oaths of Youngspiration’s Yau Waiching and Sixtus “Baggio” Leung Chun-hang, as well as Professionals Guild’s Edward Yiu Chung-yim, were not accepted by LegCo Secretary General Kenneth Chen Wei-on, who oversaw the oath-taking. The dissidents questioned the authority of Kenneth Chen to do this but to no avail.

They then changed the subject by demanding deferments of the LegCo presidential election for a week over pro-establishment candidate Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen’s nationality even after he produced two official letters from the UK government confirming

Clearly the dissidents are forcing the hands of the establishment for a showdown, and this has to be dealt with one way or the other. On the solemn issue of national integrity, there is no room for compromise.”

The author is a veteran current affairs commentator. that he had renounced his UK nationality.

Rows ensued; the dissident lawmakers-elect then began to occupy the meeting chamber. Provisional chairman Leung Yiu-chung refused to chair the meeting to elect the president of the Legislative Council and his seat was occupied by Leung Kwok-hung, also known as “Long Hair”. Abraham Razack then assumed the chairmanship of the election proceedings. After several disruptions and moving the meeting to another room, Leung finally got elected by 38-0 — with most dissidents leaving with torn ballots.

In the meantime, there are four separatists who obviously have tinkered with the oath taking ceremony but were let through by the LegCo secretary general. Pro-establishment lawmakers declared they will not accept it. On the other hand, the rejected three also vowed to fight back. Either way, the story will not end here.

Clearly the dissidents are forcing the hands of the establishment for a showdown, and this has to be dealt with one way or the other. On the solemn issue of national integrity, there is no room for compromise. The separatists have just declared war. Separatism now has to be stamped out in the Legislative Council.

If you think “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and his cohorts have lowered the standards of Hong Kong’s legislature greatly over the last four years to the lowest in its history, you haven’t seen what some legislators-elect did on Wednesday. At the swearing-in session on the first day of assembly in the legislative chamber, they produced a farce so disgraceful that people watching it on TV shook their heads in disgust.

While most of the legislators-elect, including the moderate “pan-democrats”, read out the oath faithfully, those from the radical “localist” camp changed the wording, slowed down the tempo like during filibusters, and displayed proindependence slogans.

Nothing can be more solemn than taking an oath as a legislator. But these young people apparently saw it as another opportunity to produce a show that pleased their supporters while delivering their separatist messages. Their childish actions have brought dishonor to the Legislative Council and to themselves. Their qualifications as legislators will now be questioned because what they did was clearly against the Basic Law.

Their most distressing actions, however, were to pronounce the word “Republic” like an obscene word and say “China” in the same way Japanese militarists did during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (193745). This word carries a racist and very insulting tone and today is not used. You cannot imagine it ever being uttered by a Chinese citizen about his country on such a solemn occasion.

Many of those who cast their votes in the latest Legislative Council election want change in our legislature. They were dissatisfied with the performance of our lawmaking body and its members during the previous term. But the first day of the new LegCo showed us it would probably be change for the worse.

Not only did the swearing-in ceremony not go smoothly, the election for LegCo’s president was also held up with considerable obstructions. The disgraceful farce the radicals produced on Wednesday dispelled any remaining hopes these young people might want to genuinely make a difference in the legislature and work for the greater good of Hong Kong.

This kind of disheartening news was in stark contrast to the positive news coming from Macao over the past few days. There, Premier Li Keqiang praised Macao’s rapid development in recent years. We should pay careful attention to the premier’s words.