Hong Kong plans to drop ‘political neutrality’ rule for civil servants, but still require they be impartial
- Civil service chief Ingrid Yeung says political neutrality ‘cannot be used as an excuse to evade tasks decided upon by the government’
- One academic argues that keeping requirement in code of conduct could put staff at odds with carrying out Beijing’s policy in Hong Kong
The head of Hong Kong’s civil service plans to remove the requirement of “political neutrality” from the code of conduct governing her 180,000-member force to prevent them from using it to evade tasks.
One academic on Tuesday argued the move by Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan was aimed at ensuring all civil servants could undertake work that aligned with Beijing’s goals, such as promoting patriotism, without finding themselves at odds with the code.
Briefing lawmakers on her plan to reform the branch, Yeung also stressed the importance of boosting government workers’ awareness of “national sovereignty, security and development interest”.
“Political neutrality cannot be used as an excuse to evade tasks decided upon by the government,” she said.
Yeung revealed that the recently rebranded Civil Service College had been working with the Institute for Hong Kong and Macau Studies at Peking University in Beijing on creating a comprehensive training programme to enhance staff members’ understanding of the city’s constitutional order and contemporary China.