I was in the legislature from the year 2000. In 2003, as Joshua mentioned earlier, we had the article 23 legislation. I was a legislator then. I was very worried that Hong Kong was going to pass the national security law.

I didn't think that Hong Kong people would care at that time, but to my utter surprise, half a million people came out. It was a really hot day, and it was a really impressive and very, very moving demonstration. It was so overwhelming that even though we were in the minority in the LegCo in opposing article 23, in the end, because there were so many people out there, it flipped the legislature so that some of the majority came over to us. As a result, the government did not have enough votes to pass article 23. As one member said earlier, change has to come from within.

Since then, since 2003, you see Beijing's hand getting deeper and deeper into Hong Kong, to the extent of now controlling our elections. The legislature has changed a lot since then. In the old days at least there was a measure of politeness and courtesy. Now it's actually quite difficult, and the relationship between the legislature and the government is also very poor.

When I was originally in the legislature, at least the Beijing government would be very courteous, thinking that maybe they could win us over, but when it's so obvious that they're not going to give us our rights, obviously I have to stand firm. Therefore, in fact today the former Chief Executive, Mr. Tung, says that anybody who's anti-Communist party will not become a candidate, will not be able to take part in an election. Somebody then asked Mr. Tung, well, what about Audrey Eu? He said that she knows herself what she has done. It's typical communist rhetoric, “You know what you have done”, that sort of attitude.

Of course, since then there's been a great change in the relationship any Beijing officer had, as far as I'm concerned.

Transcript

Discussions (0)