Proposed resolution under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privile) Ordinance (2012/12/19)

President, the UBW incident at the Chief Executive's houses has now dragged on for more than five months. The parties concerned and government departments involved have one after another made responses through various channels. The Chief Executive also came to the Legislative Council last week to give explanations and make open apologies. While we may hold different views and understanding of Mr LEUNG's account of his UBW incident, his attitude of facing the problem squarely is recognized.
The new Administration's determination to ameliorate social problems and improve people's livelihood is also beyond doubt. 

President, the series of reports on UBWs started in late June. At the early stage of the incident, the Chief Executive constantly responded to enquiries and tried to handle the alleged unauthorized structures. After the relevant judicial proceedings were finished, he also took the initiative to issue a written statement, which ran into 14 pages and contained 51 paragraphs, and came to the Legislative Council to give explanations in person.

As we can see, except for following legal advice to remain silent when proceedings were in progress, the Chief Executive has faced the problem with a positive attitude and tried to give an account of the UBW incident both in the Legislative Council and on other public occasions.

It is undoubtedly disappointing that the explanations given by the Chief Executive cannot completely clear the air and he performed poorly in the Question and Answer Session of the Legislative Council. However, unauthorized structures do not warrant his stepping down. Many members of the public expected the Question and Answer Session of the Legislative Council to bring an end to this controversy. They are fed up with the persistent political bickering and hope that we would refocus social resources on enhancing people's livelihood and boosting the economy.  

In fact, over the past 15 years after the reunification of Hong Kong, only four motions of no confidence have been moved and the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance (P&P Ordinance) has been invoked only five times. However, the current-term Legislative Council has in the last two months already moved motions of no confidence in two Bureau Directors and the Chief Executive respectively, while having held adjournment debates to call for the stepping down of an Executive Council Member and twice invoked the P&P Ordinance. It should be noted that the P&P Ordinance is hailed as the "Imperial Sword" of the Legislative Council. Members of the public would normally place higher expectations on it. They especially do not want such power to be abused, affecting its authority. 

President, we can criticize the way the Chief Executive handled the UBW incident as it fell short of the expectations of the public. However, we should not therefore brush aside all his performance in administration after taking office. That is also unfair to the civil servants and politically accountable team who have been serving the public with their utmost. According to a public opinion poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong early this month, the popularity rating of the Chief Executive has dropped while the ratings for members of his governing team have generally gone up. It reflected that the public are disappointed with the Chief Executive's UBW incident but recognize the Government's performance in administration. 

In addition, as shown in the latest public opinion poll of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the popularity rating of the Chief Executive has rebounded to the past level since November. It is mainly due to a number of livelihood measures taken by the Government since it took office. They include the tackling of "doubly non-permanent resident pregnant women" problem, the stabilizing measures for the property market and the Old Age Living Allowance, all having come into play positively. 

It is the Government's responsibility to propel the community forward for the betterment of the general public. The public at large also expect the Government to care more about the economic and livelihood issues in the territory and cope with competition from neighboring regions. If we continue to be entangled in the political problems, the Government and its officials will be exhausted from "defusing bombs" all days and cannot stay focused on effective administration. That will only bring chaos to the community, resulting in a situation of "all-loss" for the Government, political parties and members of the public.
 
President, the policy address is an important policy paper outlining a blueprint for the future development of Hong Kong. It is now just a month or so before the announcement of the policy address. It is worth while for everyone to ponder whether we should continue wasting our time and energy on investigating the UBW incident or let the Government and the community rally their efforts on addressing livelihood issues on both the internal and external fronts.

The issue of UBWs has already caused a negative impact on the Chief Executive and the Government. Our society has also paid a price for it. An experience gained is a lesson learnt. We hereby hope that the Chief Executive would learn from experience and avoid making the same mistake again, while redoubling his efforts to regain the confidence of the people with achievements. It is important for him to pull himself together after a painful experience and handle any future crisis in a timely manner with great transparency. He should,
in particular, strengthen communication with the Legislative Council to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings. Only then can he walk his talk of "getting back on track with the community". 

With these remarks, President, I oppose invoking the P&P Ordinance to investigate the Chief Executive's UBW incident.