1 - Governor's transcript
Following is the transcript of the media session by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after visiting the Tsuen Wan District this (Wednesday) afternoon:
Question: Were you reassured by Michael Suen's comments today?
Governor: I have read the consultation document and I hope that as many people as possible in Hong Kong will do so as well and will comment on it. I don't want to speak in detail about the document. We will, as you know, be publishing our own comments on the document which we will place in district offices alongside the consultation document itself, hoping that will contribute to the public debate.
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But I do just want to make one point. When it was first proposed that some of Hong Kong's protection of civil liberties should be changed in the words of the Chairman of the Bar Association, when these measures were proposed which would in her view undermine the rule of law there was so much public disquiet expressed, that I think it was rightly decided that there should be a consultation process during which the community could make its views known. Now the question is this: Is this a genuine consultation process or is it not? The document doesn't set out options, it puts forward one set of proposals. And nowhere does it justify changing the present law. There is no indication, nor has there yet been any indication of how our present laws contravene in any way the Basic Law. But now we have got these proposals put forward without that justification, proposals which I think everybody knows to some extent turn the clock back on the freedoms which Hong Kong enjoys, and which undoubtedly tighten the screw on Hong Kong's civil liberties.
I hope that when people express their views on these issues they will be listened to. And I hope, as a demonstration that the consultation is genuine, that we can get a simple answer to this question: If people in Hong Kong make it clear that they don't want to have their existing protection of civil liberties changed on no grounds whatsoever, if the leaders of the legal profession and others speak out in those terms, can we have an assurance that the future government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong will go to Peking and will go to the NPC and say, "We're sorry, but people in Hong Kong don't want to have their civil liberties protection changed; civil liberties protection which in their view is entirely in line not just with the International Covenants but with the Basic Law"?
So it is a simple question: If the consultation demonstrates, as previous comment has demonstrated, that people don't want a change in these fundamental freedoms, don't want a change in the law, can we be assured that that point will be put very clearly on behalf of Hong Kong to the authorities in Peking?