Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session before the Executive Council meeting this morning (December 4):
Reporter: Mrs Lam, you said the Government is going to have an internal discussion as to whether it’s necessary to amend laws to target such grey areas. What about guidelines that may not necessarily amend the Legislative amendments? And also do you think Mr Chu should be allowed to be a lawmaker anymore because some pro-government legislators are indeed looking at ways to maybe strip him of his seat?
Chief Executive: Mr Eddie Chu at the moment is a Legislative Council member. It is not for me as the Chief Executive to say whether he is qualified as a Legislative Council member. In our daily dealings with Legislative Council members, we respect their status and we will continue to interact with them, responding to their questions, engaging them in panel discussions and so on. It will cause no difference to how we deal with individual members of the Legislative Council.
As far as the internal review, I take the view that because of the events that have taken place in the last couple of years, there is a need, and by the way there is always a need to review existing legislation and arrangements to ensure that they can respond to the latest situations, so the internal discussion that I have referred to will be along those lines. I don’t see the immediate need to issue guidelines because when the authority, in this case the Returning Officer, exercises power under the legislation, one has to look at the evidence and the circumstances, so these are not the things that could be strictly and rigidly determined by guidelines.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
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