My TakeCivil servants’ loyalty pledge justified after 2019 unrest
- The old standard of political neutrality for the civil service has been more of a gentleman’s agreement and is only workable in a society with strong social cohesion and consensus
The new loyalty pledge required of civil servants has led to much grumbling within the 180,000-strong public workforce. It’s hard to see what’s wrong with asking public workers to declare their allegiance to the Hong Kong government and the Basic Law, our mini-constitution.
As our opposition politicians love to say, we must follow international practices and standards. Well, there is no more common government standard than such loyalty declarations. Note: local civil servants are not being asked to pledge allegiance to China or the ruling Communist Party.
In-house researchers at the Legislative Council have released a new study of such practices in six democratic countries: the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, Australia and Germany.
All six require civil servants to indicate they will serve the constitution, and the government of the day, regardless of their own political stance. Except for Britain and Australia, a formal or legal oath is required.
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Except for Japan and Hong Kong, there are also routine security checks on civil servants, broken into levels of intensity and scrutiny.
All six democracies assess loyalty concerns on the basis of personal conduct, association with organisations and groups, and personal connections. The US, Australia and Germany can access foreign financial interests. The first two also look into foreign passports, but not Germany.