Public Eye | When it comes to rule of law, Hong Kong can’t have its cake and eat it too
The opposition wants court costs dropped for disqualified lawmakers but cries foul over joint immigration checkpoints at West Kowloon
So, you don’t want Hong Kong to become like just another mainland city. Fine. Then never forget it’s the rule of law that lets us stand tall against rivals Shenzhen and Shanghai. Bend it even a little and we’ll be no better than they are.
It’s a staple of the opposition to mock the mainland’s rule of law and to lecture it against meddling in ours. But it now turns out the opposition’s moral principles are tradeable.
It’ll go easy on Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor if she instructs the justice department to drop court costs for four opposition lawmakers who were recently disqualified. It ominously implied that if she refused, it would give her hell as it did her predecessor, Leung Chun-ying.
Lam tasted that hell last week when opposition lawmakers dragged out debate on her multibillion dollar education plan.
Disqualified lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung told me in a TV interview that forgoing court costs is no big deal since the disqualification case is civil, not criminal.
