Beijing liaison recruits Liberal Party to tout Hong Kong electoral reform
Beijing body's alleged request for Liberal Party to help drum up support for the government's reform plan infringes Basic Law, a legislator says
Beijing's liaison office may have breached the Basic Law by "meddling in Hong Kong's internal affairs", after it apparently asked a pro-establishment party to join a publicity blitz promoting the government's electoral reform package.
The Liberal Party admitted, upon media queries, having received a message from the liaison office on Wednesday asking if it was interested in helping with an upcoming citywide campaign organised by Robert Chow Yung, leader of an anti-Occupy Central movement last year.
"I will pass the message to our district councillors or officers in the community and let them decide whether to play a role in it," party chairman Felix Chung Kwok-pan said yesterday. "We will not make it compulsory."
Chung said he did not regard the office's call as exerting any sort of pressure on the Liberals.
But Civic Party lawmaker Dr Kenneth Chan Ka-lok said the liaison office had clearly violated Article 22 of the Basic Law, which states that no department of the central government should interfere in Hong Kong's affairs. Chan said Beijing's constitutional role in political reform did not justify the office's purported move.
Dr Ma Ngok, a political scientist at Chinese University, also felt it inappropriate for the office to advise a local party what to do.
The government's own drive to win the hearts and minds of Hongkongers is already in full swing, after it announced its final proposal on April 22 requiring chief executive hopefuls to win majority support from a 1,200-strong nominating body before the top two or three candidates move on to the public ballot.
