CS pours cold water on election age JR; MTR announces instrument registration scheme; 6 SWHC members threaten to quit.
Photo: Chris Lusher
Government & LegCo
Carrie Lam: No strong public desire to lower age threshold for LegCo election candidates
– In response to Joshua Wong’s judicial review to lower the minimum age for LegCo election candidates from 21 to 18, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said the Government “have not, sort of, received a very strong desire to lower the age from 21 to 18″
– Lam also noted that it might not be feasible anyway for amendments to election laws to apply in time to next year’s LegCo election
Police preparing for prosecution of seven officers who beat up Occupy protester
– The police are reportedly preparing documents for the prosecution of seven officers who beat up Civic Party member Ken Tsang Kin-chiu during the Occupy Movement, after receiving legal advice from the Department of Justice
– Tsang said the DoJ did not contact him or his lawyer on the matter, and that he just heard about the news from reporters
– Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen did not confirm whether the DoJ advised prosecution of the officers but stressed that “there’s absolutely no political consideration being taken into account when making the decisions”
CY Leung defends ‘responsibilities’ in government-funded universities
– Before departing for Israel, CY Leung reiterated that the CE has certain responsibilities as chancellor in the city’s government-funded universities and that he would act according to the legislation of the respective institutions as long as its stands
– Meanwhile, Peking University President Professor Lin Jianhua cancelled his guest lecture at HKU at the last minute citing “emergency business engagement” as the reason
Political (General)
MTR announces mediocre registration scheme for large instruments
– The MTR Corp, after agreeing to review its luggage policy amid public discontent, announced a registration scheme to allow musicians to carry large instruments on trains starting from November
– The Corp would consider extending the scheme to cover sports equipment early next year depending on the feedback
– The proposed scheme, however, will run as a trial during ‘non-peak’ hours while larger instruments such as double bass, harp and Chinese guzheng would unlikely to be allowed
Labour representatives threaten to withdraw from negotiations if no timely legislation proposal for standard working hours
– Six employee members of the Labour Advisory Board, accounting for one-fourth of Standard Working Hours Committee (SWHC) members, threatened to quit talks on standard working hours if a legislation proposal is not made this month
– The committee is about to launch a second round of public consultations at the end of this year before finalising the proposals in March
– Stanley Ng Chau-pei, chairman of the pro-est Federation of Trade Unions, were among the six members who also included Leung Chau-ting, Wong Siu-han, Chau Siu-chung, Chan So-hing and Charles Chan Yiu-kwong
– Chairperson of the committee Edward Leong called on members to forge common grounds and allow differences
– The next SWHC meeting will be held later this month
PLA setting up surface-to-air missile military position at Hong Kong base
– The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is reportedly setting up a surface-to-air missile military position at its Hong Kong base in Shek Kong
– Research Director of the Hong Kong Zhi Ming Institute and military commentator Hui Ching said he doubted the credibility of the news as it was not reasonable, not necessary and not beneficial to have such a deployment in Hong Kong
– Meanwhile, Zhang Dejiang, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, praised Macau legislators yesterday for being cooperative with the government and highlighted their role in “safeguarding” an “executive-led” system
