Hong Kong’s civil servant unions demand lawmaker Alice Mak address claims she shouted profanity at Chief Executive Carrie Lam over extradition bill
- Alice Mak urged to come clean about whether she directed swear words at city’s leader
- If she did it, civil servant organisations demand public apology
Hong Kong’s civil service unions have called on a pro-Beijing lawmaker to confirm whether she shouted expletives at the city’s chief executive over the government’s handling of the botched extradition bill.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants’ Association and the Federation of Civil Service Unions, urged Alice Mak Mei-kuen, a lawmaker for the Federation of Trade Unions, to come forward.
If that was the case, the unions said, Mak owed Lam a public apology.
“Any public official, including the chief executive, bureau heads, civil servants of all levels, should not be subjected to any assaults of verbal violence when they are performing their duties,” the statement said. “Legislative councillors should be a role model for Hong Kong people, especially the younger generation, not the opposite.”
Mak did not respond to the Post’s requests for a comment.
In recent days, Mak has refused to confirm whether she spoke any foul language to Lam, citing the need to keep closed-door meetings confidential.
But Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, a pro-establishment lawmaker, accidentally let it slip that Mak directed profanity at Lam on Tuesday.
His remarks were made in a private conversation during a break in the Independent Police Complaints Council meeting while not realising his microphone was still on.
Mak reportedly became teary eyed as she shouted an expletive-filled challenge to Lam, demanding that the city’s leader personally face disgruntled residents in districts where pro-establishment parties could be hurt in the next polls.
We are doing this to protect civil servants’ dignity
Beijing loyalists in Hong Kong had thrown their weight behind the bill, which would have allowed the city to transfer fugitives to jurisdictions with which it lacks an extradition deal, including mainland China.
The pro-Beijing camp felt it was slowly gaining support for the bill before the government abruptly suspended the legislation after a mass protest on June 9 and violent clashes between protesters and police on June 12.
The pro-establishment bloc now fears they could face backlash from voters in November’s district council elections.
Suzanne Tong Lai-ngor, chairwoman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, said the statement was meant to protect the city’s 171,000 civil servants from verbal abuse.
Foul language in Hong Kong: it’s not what you say but how you say it
“Many of our frontline civil servants have to deal with residents on a day-to-day basis. We would not want to see them get into the situation where people would say to them: ‘If people can yell at the chief executive, why can’t I yell at you?’”
Tong said the unions were not prompted to issue the statement by complaints or requests from the government.
She said they released a similar statement last month after Democratic Party lawmaker Wu Chi-wai yelled expletives at Lam in a Legislative Council meeting, saying: “You are useless dead or alive, b***h!”
“We are doing this to protect civil servants’ dignity,” she said.
The unions said the statement was focused on the issue of verbal abuse and not directed at any political party or related to the extradition bill.
