Politicians and lawyers react sharply to a Beijing mouthpiece naming non-patriots
The courts and the Basic Law should be the arbiters of whether lawmakers or officials have breached their oaths of office - not commentaries carried by the state media - politicians and lawyers said yesterday.
Their remarks came after the Beijing mouthpiece Wen Wei Po accused Democratic Party legislators Szeto Wah and Martin Lee Chu-ming, and fellow lawmakers Emily Lau Wai-hing, of The Frontier, and legal-sector representative Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee of not meeting the legal criteria for patriots set out by Xinhua in a commentary the agency released on Tuesday.
The commentary also listed four kinds of unpatriotic behaviour: leading or participating in groups opposed to the Communist Party; publicly supporting Taiwanese independence; inviting foreign intervention in Hong Kong affairs; and opposing the national security bill last year.
It said such behaviour by legislators would breach oaths they had sworn of allegiance to the Hong Kong special administrative region and to uphold the Basic Law.
Wen Wei Po said Mr Szeto was guilty of unpatriotic behaviour under the first category, Ms Lau under the second, Mr Lee under the third and Ms Ng under the fourth.
Mr Lee called the newspaper's accusations rubbish. 'The state mouthpieces have only sought to split the public. I really encourage people to file charges, as it is the only way to judge whether we have faked our oaths,' he said.