TNAG-1856-FCO40-2631-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 62

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

香港立法局—————————一九八九年七月五日

5 July 1989

46

The FAC failed to recognize this

despite pleas from you, Sir, from the

Senior Members of OMELCO, from Members of this Council and the

community, including myself, who went to the United Kingdom to press our case, and from the people of Hong Kong.

Without sympathy, perception, understanding, vision and even a sense of reality, the FAC's report is virtually meaningless.

We must not allow Britain to wash her hands of Hong Kong. moral, if not legal, obligation to the people of her Crown colony. watching to see that Britain holds to her duty and keeps her honour.

Britain has a

The world is

Britain must restore to the people of Hong Kong their birth-right as British subjects. The fight for the right of abode is not over; it has just begun.

We must use our talent and our resources to convey to the people of Britain the deep concerns and fears of the people of Hong Kong. We have the sympathy of the British public, but not that of their Government. We need the help of the British people to convince their Government.

We are not a liability to Britain. We are not a liability to the world. Just as Hong Kong has a vital economic role to play in China, so do we have a vital role to play in the world.

Here at home, we must accelerate the pace of democratization. We must protect civil liberties with a Bill of Rights. We must expand civic education so that the people of Hong Kong fully understand the rights and the responsibilities of citizenship because without this, democracy has no foundation.

Hong Kong is our home. We are united. We must remain united to protect our past, our present and our future.

We have seen Britain at her worst. But Britain has yet to see Hong Kong at our best.

Sir, with these remarks, I support the motion.

倪少傑議員致辭:主席先生,外交事務委員會的報告強調英國政府應該盡速重建香港人的信心, 並且重申英國政府要堅決實行中英聯合聲明的承諾,維持香港的安定繁榮。很遺憾地,報告的内 容並沒有透露任何實際的具體行動去體現英國政府重建港人信心的承諾。而令人更加遺憾的是, 宗主國的道義和法律責任已經蕩然無存,全部給政治現實所埋葬了。