Councillors Scrap Policy Platform After Govt Warning

A group of localist district councillors announced on Thursday that they have abandoned plans to form a public platform for policy discussion, saying they have been unable to unite different factions of the pro-democracy camp.

Home Affairs Secretary Casper Tsui had previously warned that the platform would be illegal. He didn't explain how exactly, but in an interview last week he noted that public officers need to take an oath of allegiance under the national security law.

A spokesman for the group, Islands district councillor Leung Kwok-ho, said at a press conference that Tsui's remarks were laughable.

He said the platform was simply meant to promote cross-district cooperation and discuss livelihood issues, such as the Lantau Tomorrow reclamation project, bus route plans, and the development of public hospitals.

"How would the discussion of these topics violate the law?.... Since the very beginning, we have made the proposed platform's objective crystal clear – we want the future platform to truly reflect the opinions of the general public, for the goal of bettering Hong Kong people's general well-being," another spokesman of the group, Kowloon City district councillor Timothy Lee, said.

Leung said they respect different factions within the camp having different reactions to what he called “threats from the regime.”

But he criticised unnamed senior members of traditional pro-democracy political parties for repeatedly trying to stop members from joining the platform.

In the past week, three councillors from the Democratic and Civic parties left a preparatory committee for the setting up of the now-disbanded platform.

"Suppression from the regime will not just stop. It will step up in many forms – like false accusations, white terror and politically motivated prosecutions," Lee added.

"Elected officers like ourselves must carry out our duties despite all that, especially we are already in a more comfortable position than the general public. Besides talking the talk, we must also walk the walk."

The group bowed at the press conference and apologised for "letting the public down".

The committee was formed in early June – before the national security law was imposed on Hong Kong – at an unprecedented joint meeting of 17 district councils.