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Opinion | Mass arrests: the sinister aspect of democrats’ ‘35-plus’ primaries strategy for the Legco elections
- The powers given to legislators under the Basic Law must be exercised in good faith. If the whole essence of their endeavours is to wreak havoc, and bring down the government, then they are using the Basic Law as a disguise for subversive activities
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The arrest of 53 people earlier this month in Hong Kong on suspicion of subversion has, once again, led to a frenzy of condemnation by Western leaders and the media. All those arrested have been released on police bail as investigations continue. These are likely to take some time.
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Most of the 53 are “pro-democrats” who sought to take part in the September 2020 Legislative Council elections (since postponed); the rest are organisers of an event known as the “35-plus” primaries which took place on July 11-12.
The primaries were organised to find the candidates among the pro-democrats most likely to be elected into office, to prevent the votes for them being split in the various constituencies. The immediate aim was, with 35-plus opposition councillors in office in September, they would dominate the 70-seat legislature. Apparently, 610,000 registered voters took part in the primaries.
What is sinister about the whole scheme is that it was designed to implement a wider plot called “10 steps to real mutual destruction”, which was outlined by Benny Tai Yiu-ting in a Chinese-language Hong Kong newspaper article on April 28, 2020.
At the core of the 10 steps was that the legislators with control of Legco would not be there to discharge their constitutional functions in the best interests of the community. Quite the reverse. The aim was to use their powers as legislators to create chaos.
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Mass arrests of Hong Kong opposition lawmakers, activists under national security law
Mass arrests of Hong Kong opposition lawmakers, activists under national security law
The steps envisaged included exercising their powers under Article 73(2) of the Basic Law to refuse any allocation of funds to the government and vote down the annual budget, forcing the chief executive to dissolve Legco under Article 50 of the Basic Law.
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