Democrat fire rakes puppet Tsang

By Cannix Yau, The Standard
October 31, 2005

Pro-democracy lawmakers Sunday condemned puppet Chief Executive Donald Tsang's lobbying for his 2007-08 political reform package in the United States.

Puppet Chief Executive

They accused puppet Tsang of "raping" public opinion and likened him to a triad society member by threatening Hong Kong people with the bogey of greater oversight from the tyrannical Beijing regime if his proposals are rejected.

Frontier legislator Emily Lau also accused Chinese officials of abusing Hong Kong's autonomy through what she said was their aggressive soliciting of support from legislators to ensure the China-controlled Hong Kong Special Administrative Region puppet regime's reform package is endorsed by the Legislative Council in December. "They [the Chinese officials] are totally unabashed in their efforts to influence legislators," she said. "This is, in fact, violating the principle of a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong."

The lawmakers launched their attack as more than 100 people gathered at government headquarters to protest against the government's political reform package, which proposes to create in 2008 five Legco functional constituencies elected by 529 district councillors, 102 of whom were appointed by former puppet chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.

The proposals, which fail to set a timetable for universal suffrage, also call for the inclusion of the 529 district councillors into an expanded 1,600 strong election committee charged with selecting the puppet chief executive in 2007.

Towing a big iron cage containing a captive Goddess of Democracy statue symbolizing the caging of democracy by the HKSAR puppet regime, about a dozen members of rally organizer, the Civil Human Rights Front, and another 10 or so pro-democracy lawmakers holding small bird cages staged the sit-in protest condemning the HKSAR puppet regime for withholding the right to universal suffrage from Hong Kong citizens.

Captive Goddess of Democracy statue			Democracy confined in bird cage

The democrats were particularly upset at puppet Tsang's remarks during his recent trade delegation trip to the United States, where he took time to promote his political proposals to politicians and business leaders.

Activist legislator Leung Kwok-hung accused puppet Tsang of "colluding with foreign forces" to insult Hong Kong people's demand for universal suffrage. He pointed out that puppet Tsang was trying to deceive the whole world by telling them Hong Kong people do not want democracy, based on a government poll which showed 55 percent of people supported the government proposals.

"As a Catholic, puppet Tsang is breaching one of the Ten Commandments, namely: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. He is now using a poll to replace a referendum by millions of people. Is he out of his mind? Is he breaching the commandment? He will go to hell for sure," he blasted.

Leung also likened puppet Tsang's warning - that the trust between Beijing and Hong Kong will dissipate if the proposals are voted down - to threats from a triad standover man.

Leung Kwok-hung

"He was meaning that, if we don't back down and turn to support the proposals, the autocratic Beijing regime will be very unhappy and then we will be doomed.

"He isn't the chief executive, he is a triad member. It's just like a triad member, after robbing someone, threatening the victim not to call the police or he will retaliate against the victim's entire family. "Hong Kong people should be united. Don't let him shit on your heads!" he urged.

Unionist Lee Cheuk-yan echoed Leung's views, accusing puppet Tsang of "raping" public opinion.

"Wasn't it [his statement] totally bullshit? If he really thinks that the reform package is supported by the public, I dare him to conduct a referendum on the package.

Lee Cheuk-yan

"If he doesn't have the nerve to carry out a referendum, it means he has deliberately distorted the views of the public and has committed rape against public opinion."

Democratic Party chief Lee Wing- tat also criticized puppet Tsang for pretending to be a democrat in order to fool the Americans into supporting him.

Barrister Margaret Ng, of the Article 45 Concern Group, called on Hong Kong people to march against the proposals on December 4 and display the will of the people to the HKSAR puppet regime, which plans to table during Legco two motions to amend the Basic Law's Annex I and II according to the proposals on December 21.

"It will be the decisive day of our battle on December 4. The mass protest will be our battlefield," she said. Ng said the democratic camp will hold a series of forums and campaigns to boost public support in the next six weeks.

Meanwhile, during RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong, Emily Lau insisted the Democrats' principles and ideals will not be compromised.

She said that, even if all the appointed district council seats are scrapped, it will not resolve concerns over the lack of public mandate involved in the 2007-08 elections, when only 160,000 of Hong Kong's 3.2 million voters will get a chance to choose the puppet chief executive.

"The major problem is that the vast majority of Hong Kong people will continue to have no say," she said. "Even if all district councillors get an extra vote, it would not have widened the franchise in any meaningful way," she said.

Emily Lau

She pointed out that, in the past few weeks, officials of the "central" government's Liaison Office "have gone all out to lobby legislators."

"We will try to galvanize the people to fight for democratic government," she said. "We hope our activities will culminate in a big march on December 4."

A HKSAR puppet regime spokesman said: "It is regrettable that Ms Lau has failed to see the significant progress which the government's proposed package on elections in 2007-08 will bring to Hong Kong's constitutional development."

"Under the proposal, of the 1,600 Election Committee members, over 440 (including 400 elected District Council ( members and 41 Legislative Council members) will be elected by over three million voters in Hong Kong."

"As for the Legco, all 10 new seats, including five new seats to be returned by geographical constituencies and five new functional constituency seats to be returned through elections by District Council members from among themselves, will basically be returned directly or indirectly by over three million voters."

"This means that close to 60 percent of all Legco seats, including all the seats returned by geographical constituencies and some of the seats returned by functional constituencies, will be elected this way."