Enough of pan-democrats’ politicking over unseating of four Hong Kong lawmakers

John Chan says the kind of oath-taking that saw the four disqualified would not have been accepted in any formal chamber, and protesting pan-democrats are asking that the government ignore legal principles

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Alvin Yeung (left) and James To flank fellow lawmaker Lau Siu-lai as pro-democracy Legco members hold a press conference at Tamar last November 30. Lau is one of four lawmakers to have been disqualified by a July 14 court ruling. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 6:08pm, 18 Jul 2017Updated: 7:11pm, 18 Jul 2017

The recent court ruling that disqualified four Hong Kong lawmakers was received with anger by their pro-democracy peers. Civic Party leader Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu said he could not entirely agree with the court’s reasoning. James To Kun-sun of the Democratic Party called the ruling a “declaration of war” by the Hong Kong government against its people.

Their stance is disappointing, as blind refutation of a court ruling to stir up commotion only risks widening the already wide social rifts in Hong Kong.

Yeung, who is also a barrister, believes the four legislators should not have been taken to court over their oath-taking in the first place, as such a move usurped the choice of 127,000 electors. In his view, the outcome has irreversibly torn apart the improved executive-legislative relations seen since the new government took office. He said if Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor truly wanted to mend ties, she should reconsider whether the government should contest the appeal of the four lawmakers.

Watch: Four more lawmakers disqualified over oath-taking

It is inconceivable that Yeung would find it appropriate to suggest to the new government that it compromise on such a fundamental legal principle, in order to get the pan-democrats’ agreement to continue to mend ties with the new government as a trade-off.

In highly politicised Hong Kong, lawmakers from the pro-democracy camp always find justice in causes that they support, and they will always find evil in matters that are not politically convenient for them.

More Hong Kong pan-democrats in ‘highly risky’ position after ouster of four lawmakers

Hence, for James To, the judicial review of the four lawmakers’ oath-taking became a “dirty trick”, as he put it when then chief executive Leung Chun-ying initiated the judicial process last year. And, when the result of the judicial review came out, he saw it as the government’s declaration of war against the people of Hong Kong, thus dragging each and every one of us in Hong Kong into this “war” he fancied.

Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung, in his 112-page judgment, elucidated why the oaths taken by the four legislators could not be considered as showing the oath-takers’ intention to convey the meaning and contents of the pledges of the Legislative Council oath, or be considered as having met the requisite standard of solemnity and sincerity.