TNAG-1366-FCO40-1812-Hong-Kong-Legislative-Council-(Powers-and-Privileges)-Bill-1-1985 — Page 40

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DRAFT SPEECH BY HON STEPHEN CHEONG, OBE, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 26.6.85

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Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Bill 1985

Third Reading

Sir,

I wish to speak on two topics, mainly on Clause 14 (2)

and briefly on the dilemma expressed by the Unofficials in this

episode of the Powers and Privileges Bill. One columnist has

postulated that Clause 14 (2) would provide the Governor with the power to prevent LegCo from involving itself in a wide

range of matters, and went on to conclude that "The

Sino-British Joint Declaration, after all, was silent on the

precise future relationship between the China-appointed

executive and the elected legislature. Clause 14 (2) could be

used to usher in complete subordination of the legislature to

the executive, and to ensure that Hongkong's de facto system of

bureaucratic authoritarianism extends itself indefinitely."

Both the Bar Association Chairman and the President of

the Law Society, in their last minute joint statement to the

press advocated that this clause should not be passed in its

present form and should preferably be dropped altogether.

We members of the Ad Hoc Group have examined with

great care the arguements giving rise to this call from the

leaders of the legal fraternity to drop this clause.

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