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Question: Tung Chee Hwa has said today that he has cancelled his March trip to the US and Canada. How important do you think it is for him to get himself familiar with the international scene?
Governor: He is familiar with the international scene. Mr Tung, as the Chairman of a large shipping company is well-known and well-connected in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Europe. He has got a number of distinguished friends in the United States. One of the senators that I know best in the United States, who has recently retired from the Senate, is also a good friend or acquaintance of Mr Tung and he has many other senior members of the Administration and senior members of the business community who he is well acquainted with. He was, as you know, Chairman of the Committee which helps to strengthen links between Hong Kong and United States businessmen, so he knows the world very well.
It is up to Mr Tung to decide on what should be the priorities in his diary. Of course what all of us know is that the rest of the world is watching what happens in Hong Kong and is reporting what happens in Hong Kong, and I hope the story that goes out from Hong Kong to the world will be a positive one. There have been things that have happened in the last few weeks which have disturbed people in Hong Kong and the concerns of people in Hong Kong have not been very surprisingly reported overseas. If the Bar Association in Hong Kong say that particular proposals would undermine the rule of law in Hong Kong, none of us should be surprised if that causes a certain amount of concern in other countries.
Question: What do you think of Amnesty International's suggestion that a Human Rights Commission
Governor: We have had many exchanges with Amnesty over the years on that particular subject. I have always believed that the Bill of Rights, that the independent Judiciary, that our legal aid system, that the legislation we have put into place on equal opportunities, that the Commission we've set up to deal with equal opportunities, that the complaints procedures as far as the police are concerned, that the strengthening of the powers of the Ombudsman, that all those things gave us as much civil liberties protection as we required.
It is very unusual - I think there are one or two examples but no more than that- to think of countries which have both a Bill of Rights and a Human Rights Commission. Usually, if countries have either they have one or the other not both. So I haven't believed it was necessary for Hong Kong, but obviously, if it is going to look as though Hong Kong's legal protection of civil liberties is being taken apart then it is not surprising that Amnesty and others will return to the argument that there should be a Human Rights Commission.