Hong Kong Falun Gong Spokesperson Kan Hung-Cheung: Article 23 has Too Many Loopholes and should be Shelved (photo)

Kan Hung-cheung: Article 23 should be withdrawn or delayed indefinitely

After the large-scale march on Tuesday July 1 against the Article 23 legislation with over half a million turnout, Hong Kong's chief executive Tung Chee-hwa was silent for a few days. At a press conference on Saturday, Tung insisted the national security bill would be submitted to the Legislative Council for a final vote on July 9 as scheduled, but major amendments would be made to the controversial provision on national security, which was the reason half a million protesters took to the streets earlier this week. Tung said "substantial" amendments would be made to three sections of the bill. Provisions enabling the government to ban organisations already outlawed in Mainland China and giving police the power to conduct searches without a warrant during emergency national security investigations would be deleted. In addition, public interest would be introduced as a defense.

However, Hong Kong Falun Gong Spokesperson Kan Hung-cheung said that the amendments made by chief executive Tung were not enough. When interviewed by a reporter, Kan pointed out that even though the amendments made by the Hong Kong SAR Government demonstrated that the Article 23 legislation has problems, "I feel that only patching up is not enough, we demand that the government withdraw the legislation, or at least shelve it indefinitely; Article 23 itself has many loopholes. Even with those amendments, it still has many loopholes."

He thought that if Article 23 is instated, even if it is not put into immediate use, it will still cause an atmosphere of terror and make everyone feel threatened. Its very existence is already persecution without form. He said, "This legislation will have significant effects on Hong Kong's economy and people's lives, maybe even irreversible damage. So we resolutely demand that the government withdraw the legislation, at least to put it on hold indefinitely."

Falun Gong practitioners are most concerned over the items on provisions enabling the government to outlaw organisations proscribed in China. Is it enough if this item is removed? Kan Hung-cheung answered, "Many people realised that this provision is directly aimed at Falun Gong, and that if this provision is deleted it shows that the government could not use it against Falun Gong. However looking at the spirit of the whole legislation, from the very beginning it has had 'ill intentions.'"

He continued, "The reason behind these 'ill intentions' is that this provision was instigated by Jiang Zemin's regime; its purpose is to suppress Hong Kong people's human rights and freedoms, Falun Gong and other organisations. It will cause far-reaching damage to Hong Kong people's freedom. Based on this, we are against Article 23."

Kan thought that withdrawing the legislation would benefit the Hong Kong society as a whole. People will have time to think about the legislation. He stated, "At a proper time in the future, Hong Kong people will establish laws that truly guarantee human rights. But that time is definitely not now. For those persons who insist on enacting the evil laws and persecuting people, if they continue their behaviour, they will not escape from the crimes they committed in the future lawful society."

Chinese version available at http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200307/22081.html