Letters | Hong Kong pan-democrats who quit Legco showed neither foresight nor courage

Name: What you should know about China's new national security law for Hong Kong
Uploaded: 2020-11-18T22:45:11.000Z
Duration: 5 min 50 s
Description: What you should know about China's new national security law for Hong Kong

The pan-democrats could have avoided the National Security Law by supporting Article 23 legislation, but didn’t. Now they are just walking away from the voters who supported them

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Empty seats in the Legislative Council chamber as sessions resume after 15 pan-democrats announced their resignation in response to four others being disqualified. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Letters

Published: 6:45am, 19 Nov 2020Updated: 6:45am, 19 Nov 2020

I totally agree with John Dainton in his letter critical of the mass resignation of the Hong Kong pan-democrats (“Mass resignation shows lawmakers care little for Hong Kong”, November 17). I also believe that Anthony Cheung’s “In need of balance” was extremely sound in its reasoning.

As a permanent resident card holder for over 35 years, I have found myself increasingly bewildered and disappointed by the antics and posturing of the so-called pan-democrats. In its earliest incarnation, the Democratic Party did provide a refreshing new stimulus to the political debate but gradually it has become a narrow interest group of self-appointed virtue-signalling ideologues.

If there had been a scintilla of sincere and deep care for ordinary people there would have been an acceptance of the electoral reform proposed years ago. A step in the right direction, not perfect but something approximately consistent with the Basic Law. Something to grab and develop as time went by.

05:50

What you should know about China's new national security law for Hong Kong

If there was any foresight and courage among this group, then the introduction of the abstruse national security law could have been avoided by their support for the introduction of a security law as mandated by Article 23 – debated, shaped and delivered by Hong Kong’s own visible lawmakers.

Now, in walking out of the Legislative Council, they have in fact walked away from we the people who they are supposed to serve. The people who voted for them. That action is spineless and craven.

Michael Delaney, Admiralty

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