XN000022-1995-07-13 — Page 4

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Mr Henry Tang: My question concerns the rule of law. I think we all agree, Hong Kong today has a very high standard of rule of law and I cannot agree more that it is our top priority. In fact, if I paraphrase what the Chief Secretary had said, it is our core policy to maintain the rule of law up to and beyond 1997. Can you, Governor, explain or elaborate, what do you intend to do between now and 1997 that will further strengthen the rule of law, other than what we are already doing today? In other words, what additional measures do you intend to put into place that will assure us of this rule of law, or strengthen the rule of law that we already have?

Governor: I hope the Honourable Member will be patient if I set out some of the things that we wish to do, at length. And in the light of recent discussions in this Chamber, and in the spirit which I agreed with the Honourable Member Mr Cheng on the way in, that this session should have as its motto "Peace and Love", I will be gentle and as calm as possible in setting out the Government's programme.

But I say first of all, that the most important thing that we can do that we can do with this Council - to secure the rule of law in Hong Kong, is, at the end of this month to place on the statute book the legislation on the Court of Final Appeal, which was, I guess, the trigger for yesterday's debate. And perhaps I can just say, ever so gently, a word about that (albeit in the absence of one or two of the main participants in the debate) it is conceivable (I make the point in parenthesis) that the reason why they keep on getting the agreement we reached with China so wrong, that the reason why they keep on saying things about the Court of Final Appeal Bill which are so damagingly wrong, is that they are so rarely in the Chamber to actually discuss the issue with the Governor when he turns up to talk about it.

I think that we suffer in Hong Kong from an epidemic of what we call at home, Craddockitis, and it is something which affects not just dyspeptic retired ambassadors, it clearly goes wider than that. And there are a number of ingredients to the disease, a number of symptoms. There is a belief that one has a monopoly of virtue, a belief that one has a monopoly of wisdom about what is right for Hong Kong, a belief that one has a monopoly of concern about the things which have made Hong Kong so special, and a belief that unless everybody else agrees with you and follows your own analysis, that, as far as Hong Kong is concerned, is the end of the road. Hong Kong is doomed unless people always agree with you. Those are some of the symptoms of this epidemic.