Police chief calls for peaceful protest; Localists unhappy about school-place competition; 100 mourn Li Wangyang. Photo Credit: Chris Lusher
Politics (Gov’t & LegCo)
Police chief urges peaceful protest against reform proposal.
– Police Commissioner Stephen Lo has called for foreseeable protests to be conducted in a peaceful and legal manner when lawmakers vote on the political reform package
– “I have full confidence in the Police in maintaining public order and safety irrespective of the development of any public order event…if they [protesters] do it in a peaceful and legal manner, we will assist them to express their views. But if they do it illegally or protest in a violent or radical way, hurting other people, then we will enforce the law.” Lo said
– Lo also said retired officers will be asked to provide assistance if necessary
LegCo on electricity market and retirement protection.
– The LegCo Panel on Economic Development held a public hearing on the future development of electricity market
– The Consumer Council proposed lowering the maximum return rate of the two ‘powerhouses’ to under 6% while spokesman of the Energy Advisory Committee suggested allocating the estimated 15% of market share in 2024 to potential energy providers
– Meanwhile, several groups urged (in Chinese) the Government to implement universal retirement protection during a subcommittee public hearing
Guangdong-Hong Kong internship programme launched.
– The Home Affairs Bureau, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Commission of Youth have launched the Guangdong-Hong Kong Internship Programme for the first time
– Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing said he hoped Hong Kong interns “could broaden their horizons and gain a further understanding of the Mainland” when taking four-week-long internships
in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan and Zhongshan
– Secretary for Education Eddie Ng, meanwhile, will lead a group of some 50 university students to participate in a one-day visit to Huizhou and Shunde in the province to “promote career and life planning education for students”
Politics (general)
– Around 100 people gathered in Causeway Bay to mourn (in Chinese) mainland activist Li Wangyang who was arrested after the Tiananmen massacre and died three years ago under suspicious circumstance of which the mainland authorities claimed to be suicide
– A group of about 30 members of the League of Social Democrats held a march protest from the Western Police Station to the Liaison Office earlier and urged the authorities to review Li’s deathActivist groups unhappy about sharing education resources with mainlanders.
– No more than 20 ‘localist’ protested in Sheung Shui against cross-border school applicants occupying the city’s education resources as the annual school-place allocation results were announced yesterday
– Chairman of North District Chan Siu-hung Headmasters Association Chan Siu-hung said the issue has been dealt with since the Government announced policies stopping mainland mothers from giving births in Hong Kong hospitals and capping the number of school-places in the district for cross-border students
– Almost 70% of some 28,000 school kids have been allocated to their top-3 choices
Elsie Leung: Civil nomination will be blocked a 100 times
– Basic Law Committee member and former Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung blasted (in Chinese) student leaders for burning the Basic Law, saying that the action was “an insult to ‘One country, two systems'”
– Leung reiterated that pan-dems will have no chance fighting for civil nomination in the 2017 political reform as “it will be blocked a 100 times”
Kwai Ching DC found “funding itself”.
– It was reported by MingPao that the Kwai Ching District Councillors have been using “related organisations” to fund and co-host events
– Under current procedure, the District Councillor who is assigned to a DC-led event is also responsible for looking for funding for the event, councillors however were found asking their “related organisations” to provide the capital in 208 cases out of 343, totalling an amount of more than 10 million dollars
– Democratic Party’s Executive Director and former ICAC official Lam Cheuk Ting urged the ICAC to review the funding system to ensure transparency and fairness
