HK tensions remain, despite release of two reports

It’s worth noting that even in the city’s legal community disputes over universal suffrage have developed. For example, on the issue of “public nomination” of candidates for CE election in universal suffrage, until recently the Bar Association and the Law Society both agreed this breached the Basic Law. But shortly before the two reports, the Bar Association suddenly issued a statement saying this breach was only “technical”, and that if the government wanted to reject public nomination, it must find an alternative which matches it in terms of democratic representation. Otherwise, the association warned that officials would be guilty of abusing the rule of law. The Bar’s u-turn angered Law Society President Ambrose Lam San-keung. He said the Bar Association was buckling to political pressure.

The United States has also offered renewed support to the opposition. Three days prior to the two reports, a spokesman for the US Department of State said the CE in 2017 should be elected by a method that the city’s residents judge as “credible”. The US is undoubtedly voicing support for opposition’s demands for “genuine universal suffrage”.

While the majority of Hong Kong people have been longing for “one person, one vote”, Benny Tai Yiu-ting, the initiator of the “Occupy” campaign, published an open letter to police a day before the two reports. Tai publicly advised officers to question their superiors’ orders if they are told to remove “Occupy” protesters by force. This means the opposition camp is determined to push ahead with the “Occupy” campaign without any compromises.

The author is a veteran current affairs commentator.