Hong Kong ministers and officials slow to sign pro-reform petition
Credibility of alliance campaign backing proposals for 2017 election is questioned as just over half of government appointees pledge support
Barely more than half of 38 political appointees to the government have either signed or said they will sign a petition to support an official reform proposal about achieving universal suffrage in the 2017 chief executive election.
The tepid response from the top ranks of government - senior principal officials, ministers, undersecretaries and political assistants - to the Alliance for Peace and Democracy's campaign contrasts sharply with their participation in a similar call by the Beijing-loyalist group last year to oppose the Occupy protests.
Then, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said all but one appointee, Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, would sign, though it was unclear how many eventually lent their names to that petition.
This time, only eight out of 15 non-official Executive Council members committed themselves to endorsing the petition. Convenor Lam Woon-kwong said he would not sign, Anna Wu Hung-yuk declined to comment, while five others did not respond to inquiries from the South China Morning Post.
City University political scientist Professor Ray Yep Kin-man said this apparent "reluctance" - based on a Post email survey of appointees - would undermine the credibility of the nine-day drive, which ends tomorrow.
"[Officials] seem to be wondering what effect it will have if they sign it," Yep said. "They wouldn't mind supporting the government's proposal, but if they sign the petition, they will be regarded as being on the same front as [alliance leader] Robert Chow Yung."