Paul Lam: Legislation of Article 23 closer to completion

Great progress with the long-delayed legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law was made on Thursday (March 14), with lawmakers completing their deliberation on the Safeguarding National Security Bill and its 40 amendments.

Lawmakers on the bills committee, who concluded their weeklong clause-by-clause scrutiny of the bill on Wednesday (March 13), returned to work on Thursday morning to review the bill's 40 items of amendments, submitted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

After hours of discussion, the chairman of the bills committee Martin Liao Cheung-kong announced that the review of the amendments had been completed, drawing the committee's work to an end.

In a wrap-up speech following the committee's review of the revised legislation, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok said the completion of the review marks a great stride in furthering the progress of the legislation, bringing it closer to its destination — that of becoming law.

Lam said the national security ordinance, which has been delayed for nearly 27 years, must be crafted in strict accordance with the legislative procedures, and at a high quality.

Liao said all members of the committee have fulfilled their duties by raising every question and putting forth every suggestion they have been able to think of. In return, government officials have answered all the questions and considered all the views expressed to them, Liao added.

He added that each of the bill's 181 clauses took an average of more than 30 minutes to consider; two of the clauses took lawmakers more than an hour to deliberate.

On Wednesday night (March 13), the government submitted the amended bill, reflecting the suggestions made by lawmakers during the six-day deliberation, to the committee.

The amendments include adjustments to the interpretations and meanings of international organizations and public officers. Some new provisions are also proposed in the amended draft.

The amended bill also includes a proposal to remove the provision that a person can only be classed as an absconder six months after the person's arrest warrant was issued, giving the secretary for security more flexibility to deal with absconders.

The amendments also empower the Chief Executive in Council to make subsidiary legislation for the need to safeguard national security. Offenders of the subsidiary legislation may face a fine of up to HK$500,000 ($63,925) and up to seven years in prison.

The Chief Executive in Council can also identify a cohort of persons as public officers, and expand the definition of "public officers" to include people whose jobs have an important bearing on the security or vital interests of the city, or who have greater access to State secrets, the amended bill proposed.

The amendment also adds a few clauses that require any public servant to provide reasonable support to any department or personnel working on safeguarding national security.

The LegCo's House Committee will hear Liao's report on the deliberation on Friday, after which the legislature will be able to proceed with the bill's second reading.

(Source: China Daily)