Vote for Tiananmen crackdown justice fails again
Legislators veto motion condemning Beijing's June 4 crackdown on unarmed students
With a new line-up of politicians under a new chief executive, it proved the same old story when it came to the silence of the Legislative Council's pro-establishment lawmakers on a motion condemning the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Once again, the vote was defeated.
Only three out of 43 pro-establishment lawmakers spoke out, and, as in the past, no government minister attended.
The motion was tabled by Democrat Albert Ho Chun-yan, who argued that the decision for troops with assault rifles and tanks to advance on unarmed civilians blocking their route into Tiananmen Square was "a shameful page in the history of human civilisation".
"The pro-establishment camp [are reluctant to join in] this debate, because they lack the rationale to argue against the vindication, and they also lack the guts to speak their minds," Ho said.
The pro-establishment camp [are reluctant to join in] this debate, because they lack the rationale to argue against the vindication, and they also lack the guts to speak their minds
However, Paul Tse Wai-chun, from the Beijing-loyalist camp, urged the central government to stop "acting like an ostrich" when it came to June 4.