Five lawmakers criticize Au Kam San’s spoken inquiry

In a Legislative Assembly (AL) session yesterday, five lawmakers rounded on lawmaker Au Kam San to criticize him on his position in a spoken inquiry during the period before the agenda.
Si Ka Lon, Chan Hong, Chui Sai Peng, Vong Hin Fai, and Ho Ion Sang interrupted the session to question the statements made by Au during a spoken inquiry, early last month, in which he addressed the decision of the National People’s Congress (NPC) to promote changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system.
In his inquiry, Au had said, “The central government got its hands on the Hong Kong electoral regime and ‘perfected it,’ under the pretext of ensuring that ‘Hong Kong is governed by patriots,’ correcting the policy defined by Deng Xiaoping – that is, ‘Hong Kong governed mostly by patriots.’ Most importantly, by destroying Hong Kong’s democracy, it is also destroying the Hong Kong people’s hopes for universal suffrage.” He added later, “The complete destruction of Hong Kong’s democracy under the pretext of ‘perfecting’ [it] is to ruin the ‘One country, two systems’ policy. I deeply disagree with this policy. Apparently, this event in the neighboring region has nothing to do with Macau, but since there are only two special administrative regions in the People’s Republic of China, and they are geographically close, in the face of the failure of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy in Hong Kong, the road to democratization in Macau will be more difficult.”
While lawmaker Si called for patriotism, noting that the words of Au have “no fundament since Hong Kong is part of China,” lawmakers Chan added that Au cannot say that the NPC has “ruined the One Country, Two Systems values in Hong Kong,” since the NPC decision “has the purpose of safeguarding national security and maintaining the stability of Hong Kong.”
Lawmaker Chan also added that “all changes performed [by NPC] are absolutely legal,” adding that the policy of “patriots ruling Hong Kong” is “perfectly in line with the central government policies in which the body always has the right to have the last word.”
Agreeing with Chan, lawmaker Chui said that Au considering the intervention of the NPC to be “destroying the democratic regime in Hong Kong” was unacceptable.
Lawmaker Vong took a legalistic approach to the case, saying that Au’s words violated both the rules of the AL and the duties of lawmakers.
“In our rules and regulations, it says clearly that we need to be faithful to theMacau SAR and the country,” Vong said, urging Au to remove the two more polemic paragraphs from his inquiry.
Lastly, lawmaker Ho reaffirmed some of the opinions previously expressed, adding that the topic raised by Au “is not suitable to be discussed here [at the AL],” adding that the NPC is a “top body of the central government and if there are flaws [in the Hong Kong election system], they have a duty to find solutions for those flaws.”
In his reply, Au did not agree that he has breached his “oath of fidelity” in any way. In relation to continuing to fight for democracy in Hong Kong, Au said, “I am not calling for separatism. We need to continue to defend the democracy.”
The lawmaker also added that the changes to the neighboring region’s composition of the Legislative Council are a “complete change, because from the current 70 lawmakers, 35 are regional lawmakers and there are a total of 40 elected lawmakers. This system was completed changed, and to me, this is a destruction of the democratic system,” he concluded.