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The Governor's "Letter to Hong Kong"
Following is the text of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's broadcast on RTHK's "Letter to Hong Kong" this (Sunday) morning:
When things periodically appear to go wrong in Hong Kong, when, for example, Chinese officials do or say things which seem to threaten aspects of our way of life, I am invariably asked "What are you going to do about it?".
Now that is a fair question. I am responsible for the government of Hong Kong until 30th June this year, and a fundamental part of that responsibility is to try to put in place secure foundations for Hong Kong's stability and way of life. I think we can reasonably say that Hong Kong is very well placed today. The economy is humming. Crime is down. Our institutions work incredibly well. The question marks about the future aren't, alas, related to anything people think that my Administration is going to do before the middle of the year. I say, alas, because if that was the only problem we could easily sort it out.
But there's another point that we shouldn't lose sight of, and that is that there's plenty that people in Hong Kong can do as well. We are not simply limp victims of other peoples' decisions.
Let's take for example the worries that have been understandably raised by the announcement from a Preparatory Committee group that part of Hong Kong's defences of our civil liberties should be struck down. Who can do anything about that? Well, the people who helped to create those defences in the first place are well placed to act. Especially since some of them have opted to join the provisional legislature which China has decided to set up in the face of local and international criticism and condemnation.
Now I happen to think that giving this so called legislature any credibility at all is pretty deplorable. How can you say that you're in favour of Hong Kong people running Hong Kong, and democratic development in Hong Kong, if you're prepared to go along with the dismantling of a body to which you've been yourself elected in a legitimate election.
But let's put those very important principles on one side. Those who have agreed to help close down Hong Kong's elected legislature can at least prevent the trashing of Hong Kong's civil liberties. Many of them actually voted for our Bill of Rights, for the Societies Ordinance, for the Public Order Ordinance and so on. They voted for those measures and they spoke out in favour of them. Have they all changed their mind?