DAB Urges Carrie Lam To Mend Fences With The Public

The pro-Beijing DAB party has urged the Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, to mend fences with the people, saying government policies in the past few years showed that the officials were out of touch.

Speaking to the media after submitting 31 suggestions to Lam for the upcoming Policy Address, the party chairwoman Starry Lee said Lam and her team have to improve their communication with the public and interactions with political parties.

“I hope her team can get in touch with the people in different ways,” she said. “The suggestion we have raised is to make use of the Executive Council to have a better communication with the Legislative Council.”

The city's largest pro-establishment party has also proposed setting up a committee which would review sentencing guidelines for criminal cases as the current process is taking years.

A lawmaker from the party, Holden Chow, said the punishments handed out by the courts on protest-related cases were too light.

He said the Department of Justice (DOJ) has the responsibility of reviewing the sentencing guidelines and handling appeals.

“But considering that in the past few years, we have seen the DOJ when they appeal the sentencing guidance, when they appeal for certain cases, [it] goes all the way up to the Court of Final Appeal,” he said. “It take maybe five or six years before they hand down a new sentencing guidance.”

"So if we have a sentencing council like … in US and UK, they could review the sentencing guidance for different offences time to time. And that will be done in a timely manner,” he said. Chow said the panel could comprise of judges, lawyers and people from non-legal profession.

The DAB also called on the CE to roll out the health code as soon as possible to enable cross-border travel and another round of cash hand-outs of no less than HK$5,000.