SOME members of the provisional legislature said yesterday the penalty for abusing the Special Administrative Region flag should be less than that for the national flag.
In the committee scrutinising the bill on flag and emblems in Shenzhen, Bruce Liu Sing-lee of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood said defacing or misusing the SAR regional flag and emblem did not deserve imprisonment.
'Do we really need to apply the same penalty for abusing the national flags to regional flags? 'The burning of the British or the Hong Kong flags does not constitute a criminal offence,' Mr Liu said.
Independent Kennedy Wong Ying-ho said since there had never been a SAR flag and emblem the SAR government did not need to follow the penalties stipulated in the mainland law.
The blue bill published by the Chief Executive-designate's office on the national and regional flags and emblem proposes a maximum penalty of $50,000 and three years' imprisonment.
Chief Executive-designate office director Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun said reducing the penalties for abusing regional flags might give the impression that people could abuse it instead of the national flag.