HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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motion or question must not make a personal charge against or improperly impute any motive to any Member or members of the staff.' If you mention a name, there would be a 'personal' element. General remarks like 'absolute lawlessness' without mentioning any persons' name will not be considered as personal charges. There will not be any problem too if you mention a person's name and praise him. However, if you mention somebody and make a statement about what he has done, which is groundless, maybe only basing on what you have heard, and then go further to say something concerning his character or reputation, then this will be a personal charge against him. If you insist on mentioning the names, I will listen to your speeches very carefully and stop you whenever I think there is a problem. If so, our speeches will be delivered in a jerky manner, just like riding a horse. I think this will affect the progress of our meeting. Hence I hope to have everyone's cooperation.

In our past Annual Debates, we could say freely anything we wanted to say as long as we observed the Standing Orders. Why did I have to say such thing particularly right after you (Mr. KAM Nai-wai) had delivered your speech? It is because it has already happened once. I would like to quote Mr. CHAN Kwok-leung here. He mentioned someone surnamed IP. Then I heard you also mentioned the same person. I was afraid that the same thing might happen again and again today and on the day after tomorrow which might lead to a lot of unnecessary disputes. Hence, I think that it would be better if we do not mention names.

MR. KAM NAI-WAI (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, could you clarify whether my speech violated the Standing Orders or not?

MR. CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese):—No, it didn't.

Mr. Kam Nai-wai (in Cantonese):—If my speech didn't violate the Standing Orders, I hope you would put this point in record.

Mr. Joseph Chan Yuek-sut (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, you have the right to suspend the speech of any Member at any time and give an explanation afterwards. If you think that there is anything wrong in anybody's speech, you can stop him immediately.

Chairman (in Cantonese):—I have quoted the Standing Orders already and now I am going to execute it. I hope to try peaceful means first before taking any strong measures. So don't blame me for suspending your speeches now and then. In fact, I do wish the speeches to be delivered smoothly and coherently. If we have to stop from time to time and discuss for a while before we can go on, then our speeches would be scrappy and fragmented.

MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):—I wish to say something about the incident in which my name was being mentioned and my speech being quoted

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