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Miss Margaret Ng: Mr President, I hear the Governor say that he has no doubt in his mind that it is entirely proper and beneficial for this Council to enact on the right of abode before July 1. In that case, can the Governor agree with me that we should go ahead with doing what we consider to be right in the hope that other people would agree with us, rather than avoiding doing what is right and in fact doing what might be wrong in response to the thought that other people might also do wrong?
Governor: I am very keen on trying to do what is right. I am also keen on trying to minimise rather than maximise argument and controversy in an area where it is important that there is the maximum certainty and where it is important that there is the minimum legal challenge. I don't doubt that if we were to bring forward legislation before June 30, that itself would be a subject of very considerable controversy with Chinese officials. And I am not sure that would provide the sort of certainty that we require in this area.
What I am determined to do, even if I am not prepared to do as much as I would have liked to have done, what I am certainly not prepared to do is what I think is actually wrong, which is a slightly different way of putting it. I repeat, if it was remotely the case that we needed the legal certainty of something on the Statute Book before June 30, I would have no doubt that we should go ahead. But that is not the legal advice that we have been given.
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Now let me make just one other point, which I hope the honourable lady will take in good part. One thing which I don't think would be helpful at this stage in the transition - it's not very helpful any time is the politics of gesture. And let me put that in context. We were pressed by this Legislative Council, by a majority in this Legislative Council, many of whom I see here today, to legislate on BL23, across the board. I sometimes come, as honourable members know, armed with quotations and voting records; I have done it today but there is a very nice lady who often waits for my arrival and departure at the Legislative Council Building who said to me as I came in today. "Don't embarrass anyone". So I am going to keep all those quotations and all those voting figures closed in the file.
On that issue of BL23, we were pressed very hard to legislate and when we could not get an agreement with Chinese officials we brought forward the legislation, And I now read what some people say about it, and some people's doubts about whether we will get it through or not. So I am not madly keen on putting forward legislation which I can't in all honesty recommend to the Executive Council or to others is likely to get through the Legislative Council.
Mrs Elizabeth Wong: I would like to ask the Governor a question, not on the possibility of civil servants being schizophrenic or with split-personalities in future, neither on the question which is a heavy-duty question on legal challenge, but I would like to ask a question which touches on the right of the child - human rights, civil liberties, all rolled into one.