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The following is issued on behalf of the Executive Council Secretariat:
Following is a transcript of remarks by the Convenor of the Non-official Members of the Executive Council, Mr Lam Woon-kwong, at a media session in the Legislative Council Complex this morning (May 22):
Convenor of the Non-official Members of the Executive Council: I am very disheartened to see what happened today at the Legislative Council. But this is not a one-off event. It is the accumulation of months of negative effort by certain members in the Legislative Council to try to bog down all government business, many of which are of immediate and long-term concern to the welfare of Hong Kong and its citizens. Of course, Legislative Council Members have the right and the power to monitor the Government, to question the Government, and to even try to overthrow what the Government has proposed. But all these must be done within the proper and reasonable remit of their powers, and not try to abuse certain procedural loopholes and bog down the whole government process, in the end hurting the majority of Hong Kong people. I hope today's event is going to be reflected upon deeply by all Legislative Council Members, and I hope they will try to agree on future deliberations of the Executive's proposals so that all these deliberations will proceed in accordance with the strict regulations of the Council and in a civilised manner, commensurate with Hong Kong's status as a civilised and open city. Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, May 22, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:02
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