Top Hong Kong religious leaders criticise Chief Executive Carrie Lam over handling of extradition bill protests and call for inquiry
- Cardinal John Tong and Rev Dr Eric So call for fugitive bill to be scrapped and investigation into police force
- Separate letter from local clerics accuses government of ‘ignoring the real worries and fears among citizens’
Top religious leaders have joined the growing demands for the city’s leader to scrap – rather than suspend – the polarising extradition bill and to investigate allegations of violence against protesters.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Cardinal John Tong Hon, the apostolic administrator of Hong Kong, and Rev Dr Eric So Shing-yit, chairman of the Hong Kong Christian Council, called on the government to appease the public by withdrawing the bill and setting up an inquiry into police conduct.
The Christian Council is an umbrella body for 21 churches, including Anglican and Methodist.
The appeal from Tong and So comes a day after the embattled chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, made a public apology over her handling of the bill.
Despite her contrition, Lam rejected calls to scrap the bill. She insisted that her suspension was tantamount to withdrawing the bill because now it would not be debated and processed by the legislature before the end of its term – thereby killing the bill.
[The government] did not hear the voice of its citizens
Even so, the clerics wanted more than suspension.
