Motion under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance  (2014/10/30)

President, Occupy Central has lasted more than a month so far. During this period, not only has traffic and order been thrown into confusion and economic activities affected, but people's life has evidently been disturbed. According to a survey conducted by the Mass Transit Railway Corporation Limited, the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) has recorded a 10% increase in its daily average patronage recently, meaning a daily increase of 700 000 MTR commuters. Coupled with people experiencing delays in taking other modes of transport, the number of people experiencing delays daily can be said to exceed 100 000, or even up to a million. Apart from the inconvenience caused to commuters, there are a lot of grievances among business operators. Recently, I have conducted a questionnaire survey in the tourism sector to find out the extent of impact on business during the period. Of the travel agencies responding to the questionnaire, 80% indicated that they were affected by Occupy Central, and more than 40% had seen a significant fall in their turnover. When it comes to hotels, the sector has generally reflected that the month of October this year has recorded the worst occupancy rate since the liberalization of the Individual Visit Scheme by the Mainland in 2013, with a 20% to 30% drop in its overall business income over the previous year.

Occupy Central has not only had a direct impact on public living and the economy, but if not handled properly, it will also affect Hong Kong's relations with the Central Authorities, or even cause the concessionary policies for Hong Kong to be tightened or even stopped. The fact that the date of implementation of the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock exchanges connectivity mechanism is still nowhere in sight recently may be a wake-up call. Should Hong Kong fail to gain positive support from the Central Authorities, overseas investors may gradually lose their interests in making investments in Hong Kong. As a result, its status as a financial centre will be shaken, various trades and industries will be affected in varying degrees, and Hong Kong economy will inevitably be stuck in the doldrums.

President, before the outbreak of the movement, the Occupy Central Trio has repeatedly promoted "Occupy Central with Love and Peace" and the use of a non-violent civil disobedience movement in staging a struggle. I believe quite many members of the public and students have begun with the good intention of caring about Hong Kong's political development in taking the initiative in participating in and supporting the Occupy Central action. However, if we look in retrospect at the actual movement in the past month, we will find that it has gone far beyond what its instigators have imagined. Love has seen Hong Kong society seriously torn apart. There have been constant disputes among families, friends, colleagues and classmates over the Occupy Central action. What is more, they might even cease to see each other. A couple of days ago, a relative of mine went to a clothing repair shop which he had patronized for more than a decade. When he mentioned briefly that he had just put down his signature on the street against Occupy Central, the shopkeeper reacted strongly and rebuked his impropriety. Given such a poor atmosphere, my relative could only leave and look for other shops. I think that such scenes of a lack of tolerance and inter-personal relationships being affected has continued to unfold besides us without anyone noticing them. Is this the spirit of "Under the Lion Rock" mentioned by us?

When it comes to a peaceful and non-violent civil disobedience movement, we could see from different scenes on the television screen that protesters had persistently provoked the Police with different forms of violent behaviour. As a result, the Police were constantly on the run and compelled to apply force. There were also occasional fights and scenes of bloodshed among protesters and different forms of unruly and unlawful behaviour by occupiers. Recently, the Bar Association of Hong Kong has issued a statement, saying that the public advocation and collective recognition of the defiance of a court order is undeniably eroding the rule of law in Hong Kong. As a result, the rule of law is in great peril. As we all know, it is the cornerstone of the governance of Hong Kong. Once its worth is lost, Hong Kong will be on the verge of spinning out of control. Recently, both Benny TAI and CHAN Kin-man have announced their decision to return to their universities to resume teaching. It can be said that the Occupy Central Trio is already disheartened, and the "Love and Peace" slogan initially proposed by them has already become non-existent.

President, the acts of the Occupy Central Trio and instigators have far-reaching implications on Hong Kong society, the economy and public living. Their damaging effect is very strong, too. I support the motion proposed by Mr Andrew LEUNG because we as Members of the Legislative Council are duty-bound to conduct an inquiry into a movement with a strong damaging effect (including the instigators of various organizations and uncertain sources of funding) to allay public concern.

In fact, since the outbreak of Occupy Central, many rumours have been spreading in society and forwarded in social media. For instance, according to one of the rumours, Occupy Central has been invaded by foreign forces, and Occupy Central instigators been bought over by these forces. A researcher of the Land Destroyer of the United States, Tony CARTALUCCI, has revealed on its blog that the real objective of Occupy Central is getting the foreign-backed political cabal behind Occupy Central into power, thereby achieving the "soft" recolonization of Hong Kong, and making a further attempt to divide and destabilize China. In fact, growing phenomenon and rumours, such as the rumours about the relationship between the chairman of a media organization and the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and the recording circulatedon the Internet of SHIH Ming-teh and him, can be found almost every day. In addition to these rumours, we can also see in the videos provided by the Security Bureau the day before yesterday groups after groups of protesters storm the Central Government Offices (CGO) in a highly tactical and organized manner. There must be a smart brain in command behind the scene before such a systematic storming of the CGO can be effected. 

Another issue relates to the funding and source of supplies for Occupy Central. Now that Occupy Central has lasted more than 30 days, the supplies consumed daily by tens of thousands of protesters are no longer simply confined to drinking water and food. There is also equipment specifically used to counter and confront the police law-enforcement actions, including goggles for use against pepper spray used by the Police, gas masks, gloves for erecting barricades, helmets serving different purposes, hard rubber pads, tents serving different purposes, and even umbrellas with offensive gear and steel toe safety shoes used by construction workers. Let us imagine this. Can such effects be achieved without careful planning and organization as well as abundant funds? In view of this, we might as well conduct an inquiry to uncover the truth.

President, insofar as funding is concerned, it was revealed earlier on that chairman of Next Media, Jimmy LAI, had secretly donated money to a number of pan-democratic politicos, including Members of the Legislative Council. This is no longer a rumour, for even Jimmy LAI has personally admitted it. Moreover, some pan-democratic Members have also confessed having received his donations. In the past two days, it was revealed by the media that Benny TAI had donated $1.45 million to a number of relevant colleagues of the University of Hong Kong (HKU). One of the donations, amounting to $800,000, was even used for supporting the earlier "Occupy Central referendum", so to speak. However, the entire donation process was kept under wraps. Benny TAI has all along requested the HKU to deal with the donations in an anonymous manner. It was only after repeated enquiries that one of the donations was revealed to have been made in the name of CHU Yiu-ming, thus begging doubts about the true identity of the donor. The source of funding and the purpose of donations are also questionable.

It is also said that some people have sought to buy over the pan-democrats by way of dark money for the purpose of manipulating Hong Kong's political climate at this critical juncture of constitutional reform. Certainly, it has also been explained that the donations were made by members of the public of their own accord. Therefore, the proposal put forward by Mr Andrew LEUNG to set up a select committee to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the incident of the breaking out of large-scale unlawful occupation of roads in a number of districts since 28 September this year involves Hong Kong's interests and serves the purpose of allaying public concern. What is more, justice may be done to the donation recipients, and one more channel will be made available through which members of the public can find out the truth of the incident.

As for the proposal put forward by Mr WONG Yuk-man to inquire into the Police's handling of the triad gangs' attacks on citizens rallying in Mong Kok on 3 October 2014, I think it is just an isolated incident. We may resort to law in the event of unlawful acts and improper or wrong handling by the Police. If inappropriate behaviour is found, investigations can be conducted through the Independent Police Complaints Council. Currently, the entire Police Force are facing various challenges and pressure. We should give them more encouragement and support rather than dealing to a blow to their morale. As such, I disagree with the proposal put forward by Mr WONG Yuk-man to set up a select committee.

President, obviously, the Occupy Central movement is not an isolated incident of demonstrations, for it has taken more than a year to prepare. Its impact on Hong Kong as a whole will be far-reaching. The chain of funds and interest behind the scene, the background of participants, the organizations involved and the participants are quite complex. Members of the public may not, nor can they, gain an absolutely clear picture of all this in the absence of a detailed inquiry. The circumstances surrounding Occupy Central which has lasted a month change with the day. In the past month, we have seen cleavage and confrontation happening in society with people changing their mind over and over again. Faced with so many rumours, members of the public have the right to differentiate between facts and fiction.

Hence, I hope that the pro-democratic Members can support the motion proposed by Mr Andrew LEUNG while, more importantly, persuading students to pull out of the occupation zones to enable this latest predicament to be resolved.

President, I so submit.