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The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, attended a forum organised by the Association of Engineering Professionals in Society Limited this (January 23) afternoon. Following is the transcript of Mr Lam's answer to a reporter's questions after the forum:
Reporter: What do you think about the pan-democrats using the term "uprising", do you think it has implications of being violent? And also, some legislators have raised the concern of revising the bill so that prevents certain legislators who have resigned to take part in by-elections. What do you have to say about that?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: As regards the composition of the Legislative Council and associated electoral matters, the HKSAR Government has consistently maintained that we would act according to the law. There are provisions in Basic Law Article 74 regarding the presentation of Private Member's Bills and we will comply with these provisions in analysing the Private Member's Bill when it is received and will respond accordingly.
As regards the language used by certain political parties which proposed a resignation among five geographical districts, we would say that under the Basic Law, there is no system of "referendum". What we do have is a system which requires tripartite consensus to roll forward democracy for Hong Kong and that is, two-thirds majority passage by the Legislative Council, consent by the Chief Executive and endorsement by Beijing. As for the language used by certain political parties recently, I would also say that both before and after 1997, the people of Hong Kong have accepted the arrangements under "One Country, Two Systems" and regard these arrangements as being to the benefit of Hong Kong. Therefore, any political party should not use language which is too radical.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, January 23, 2010
Issued at HKT 17:53
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