{"id":13670,"date":"2016-11-19T21:08:07","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T13:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=13670"},"modified":"2016-11-21T17:39:37","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T09:39:37","slug":"disqualification-of-localist-duo-was-a-political-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2016\/11\/19\/13670\/","title":{"rendered":"Disqualification of Hong Kong localist duo is about politics not \u2018law\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The undemocratic nature of Hong Kong\u2019s political and judicial system\u00a0is revealed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adam N. Lee, chinaworker.info<\/p>\n

The Youngspiration duo Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung Chung-hang have been kicked out of Hong Kong\u2019s Legislative Council (LegCo) by the courts.<\/p>\n

The government and establishment media are gloating. They have set their sights on removing more political victims from\u00a0the LegCo. Their claim the Youngspiration pair \u201cviolated the Basic Law\u201d is a smokescreen for a blatantly political witch-hunt.<\/p>\n

The Youngspiration lawmakers walked into the establishment\u2019s trap, isolating themselves from public sympathy with\u00a0their racist and insulting conduct. Instead of attacking the Chinese dictatorship, the\u00a0localist politicians incite racist feelings against ordinary Chinese people who are the victims of the same dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Socialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong)\u00a0has consistently opposed such views. But in our view the two politicians can only be removed from the legislature by the people at the next election, based on open and democratic discussion to expose their right-wing political platform. What is happening now is the opposite \u2013 an undemocratic purge by a regime which is using lies and threats to achieve its aims. Ultimately, this will blow back against the government and increase support for\u00a0\u2018separatism\u2019 i.e. independence.<\/p>\n

Who elected Your Honour?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fate of Yau and Leung is being decided by those who have never been elected \u2013 the Chief Executive, High Court judges, Media bosses, and the dinosaurs of China\u2019s National People\u2019s Congress (NPC). Their aim is to dismantle democratic rights and turn the LegCo into an empty echo chamber for the government and the Chinese dictatorship. The Youngspiration duo are merely pawns in their much bigger plan.<\/p>\n

Fight the government\u2019s purge of the LegCo<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

All those who stand for genuine democratic rights must speak out against this purge. It is disgraceful that the pan-democratic Civic Party, dominated by lawyers, said it \u201crespects\u201d the High Court\u2019s decision. Pro-Beijing DAB politician Elizabeth Quat hoped the case will act as a \u201creference for future cases\u201d challenging the oaths of other lawmakers, the Hong Kong Free Press reported. Her comment\u00a0shows what is really happening.<\/p>\n

In the High Court case\u00a0against the Youngspiration pair, Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung delivered a blatantly political ruling, which has far-reaching implications for other cases. He swept aside the principle of \u2018non intervention\u2019 which previously established that the courts had no power to meddle in\u00a0internal LegCo business, including\u00a0the oath-taking ceremonies. This judgement\u00a0has \u201cdiminished the constitutional significance of the LegCo,\u201d says Johannes Chan Man-mun, former dean of law at the University of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Even the Basic Law, a very undemocratic constitution that has never been voted upon, states in Article 79 that a lawmaker can only be disqualified for \u201cmisbehaviour or breach of oath <\/em>by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Legislative Council present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here it is written in black and white \u2013 but now a government of liars and bullies is rewriting the rules in broad daylight!<\/p>\n

Justice Au also ruled that in their oaths, Yau and Leung had violated the \u2018One Country\u2019 in the One Country, Two Systems formula. This\u00a0echoes the NPC Standing Committee\u2019s ruling, which made\u00a0a significant change to the Basic Law, with possibly serious legal implications, ruling that oath-takers must pledge loyalty to \u201cthe People\u2019s Republic of China and<\/em> its Hong Kong SAR,\u201d instead of the original version, \u201cthe Hong Kong SAR of the People\u2019s Republic of China.\u201d (SAR = Special Administrative Region).<\/p>\n

\"Yau
Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung Chung-hang facing the axe from LegCo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Youngspiration\u2019s weak defence<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government and the courts are now rushing through the legal process to finalise the political execution of the duo and declare by-elections. The courts are being used in a blatantly political fashion to tighten the case against other opposition legislators.<\/p>\n

Socialists place no faith in the capitalist law courts. Today\u2019s legal system is designed to defend \u2018order\u2019 in a society which is more and more unequal and undemocratic. In this system the odds are massively against the poor and the oppressed. Instead of using the courts as a platform, as socialists have done, to speak to the wider public and defend political\u00a0ideas and actions, the Youngspiration pair appear crestfallen and disorientated, putting their last hopes in a legal miracle that is unlikely to happen.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, Baggio Leung Chung-hang said the judgement would cause many who advocated self-determination to \u201crethink\u201d their plans \u2013 as if any of this was unexpected!<\/p>\n

Court costs for the Youngspiration duo will run to millions of dollars and the judge ordered them to pay 80 percent of the government\u2019s costs. Their legal team made no attempt to politicise the trial and spell out what is really happening \u2013 a political witch-hunt by an authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The undemocratic nature of Hong Kong\u2019s political and judicial system\u00a0is revealed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":13671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hong-kong","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nDisqualification of Hong Kong localist duo is about politics not \u2018law\u2019 - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2016\/11\/19\/13670\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disqualification of Hong Kong localist duo is about politics not \u2018law\u2019 - 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