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A governed chief executive|Martin Lee

蘋果日報 2020/09/03 08:40


Last Wednesday, while Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was being interviewed by Phoenix Television, she said: “Some said I have turned back to who I was, haven’t I?” She also expressed she “didn’t anticipate” Hong Kong’s politics would be as complicated as that, “because I am not kind of person who really understands politics, I’m a person who governs”. According to her statement, since the National Security Law in Hong Kong taking effect, she has regained her intrepid self to govern Hong Kong. But with the implementation of the Law, is Carrie Lam still entitled to govern the city?
I have already pointed out early on in this column that the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) drew up the National Security Law for the SAR, not only for establishing the four criminal offences and the corresponding penalties, but principally for recalling in one go the high degree of autonomy of the SAR in administration, legislation and jurisdiction conferred to Hong Kong by the Basic Law, so that the CCP exercising “overall jurisdiction” over Hong Kong is perfectly justifiable.
On June 10, 2014, the State Council issued the white paper on The Practice of the “One Country, Two Systems”Policy, which clearly states that under “one country, two systems”, “the Central People’s Government has the overall jurisdiction over the HKSAR, including the power directly exercised by the Central People’s Government as well as the power delegated to the HKSAR to exercise high degree of autonomy according to the law. The Central People’s Government has superintendency over the high degree of autonomy of the HKSAR”.
With the help of the National Security Law, CCP’s “superintendency” has been brought into full play. The administrative structure of the SAR government has now been overridden by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government and the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR. Everyone would tacitly consent to the fact that the de facto head of the SAR is not Carrie Lam, but the CCP, represented by the abovementioned institutions of “supremacy”.
In fact, being a government official for decades, it is hardly possible that Carrie Lam does not understand politics. It is just that she has already become a governed figure-head, not being responsible for any major policy making, but blindly carrying out what Beijing wishes. Though Lam strived to emphasize the SAR took the initiative to make those contentious policies over the past few years, people of good sense could sniff out she actually proposed in accordance with Beijing’s will, readily carrying the can for covering up CCP’s flagrant intervention.
The joint checkpoint at the West Kowloon Station is a good example. In 2017, no sooner had Lam assumed office than she announced the arrangements for joint immigration and customs facilities with mainland authorities during the adjournment of the Legislative Council. She stressed the proposal, which indeed ushered in “one country, one system”, was based on the high degree of autonomy of the SAR. The agreement of cooperation on the joint checkpoint signed by the SAR and Guangdong Province governments on November 18, 2017, had to be determined on by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee on December 27 of the same year for the purpose of confirming the juxtaposed border control is pursuant to the Constitution of the PRC and the Basic Law.

Lam’s “initiative” is self-deceiving

It is as plain as a pikestaff what Lam called “initiative” was in fact practice of deception on the public and herself. From then on, the initiative to match up with the national policy of developing the Greater Bay Area, to table the extradition amendment bill, to deny total border shutdown for anti-epidemic purpose, to put off the Legislative Council election and to implement the massive COVID-19 test were all literally predetermined in the disguise of Lam deciding and acting on herself without consultation with the public. To this end, Lam’s “governance” is in effect the Hong Kong version of The Emperor’s New Clothes. Not only are the new clothes invisible, but the emperor is also delusive.
The latest instance is Lam openly tilted at the politicization and smearing of the massive COVID-19 test, claiming the collected personal information and the data of nucleic acid testing is only used for application for health QR code, and will be transferred to the Guangdong and Macao governments upon applicants’ approval. But with her track record, once the governor requests Hong Kong people’s private information to be sent to China, will the SAR government she heads say no? We know what’s what. When the governor that is governed becomes more intrepid, the oppressed Hong Kong citizens have to suffer more!
(Martin Lee is a barrister and founder of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party.)
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