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Following is a transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Stephen Lam, at a media session after attending a radio programme at Radio Television Hong Kong today (October 14):
Reporter: Mr Lam, as you just said the action has been escalated, do you think the rules and procedures need to be rewritten, and how would you comment on the behaviour of Mr Wong and Leung Kwok-hung yesterday?
Chief Secretary for Administration: I would say that in Hong Kong, this being a pluralistic and free society, I believe the Hong Kong community would value, would treasure, a civilised tradition of Legislative Council behaviour in Hong Kong. This is part of the fine political tradition which I observed when I was representing Hong Kong overseas in the United Kingdom and Canada. In Hong Kong, we are promoting democracy; alongside we have the opening up of our electoral systems. We do need to instigate and promote a political tradition which embodies mutual respect among political parties and between the Government and the legislature. This is something which government colleagues have espoused and have promoted over the years. We have always valued civilised exchanges and we have always respected constitutional arrangements whereby we need to secure legislature's support for our laws and for our budgets. This we will continue to do. As representatives of the Government in attending the Legislative Council, we look to the Council to implement and enforce its rules of procedures faithfully.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, October 14, 2011
Issued at HKT 12:25
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