TONY CHEUNGtony.cheung@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 19 September, 2015, 3:39am
UPDATED : Saturday, 19 September, 2015, 3:39am
Legislators Dennis Kwok and Cyd Ho are part of a new team that will share news with their pan-democratic allies. Photo: Felix Wong
Pan-democratic lawmakers have set up a four-member group to coordinate news within the camp about talks with Beijing, in a gesture to show they "embrace dialogue" despite mainland official Zhang Xiaoming's contentious remarks last week about the role of the chief executive.
Labour Party lawmaker Cyd Ho Sau-lan, one of the four, said the idea was to strengthen trust among pan-democrats - and not to penalise anyone for speaking to Beijing officials without notifying the group.
"This is only for internal communication," Ho said yesterday. "The group will not represent pan-democrats in meeting Beijing officials."
She indicated the camp remained open to dialogue after Zhang, director of Beijing's liaison office, declared on Saturday that Hong Kong's chief executive held a position of authority that transcended the executive, the judiciary and the legislature.
"Precisely because the central government's understanding of the 'one country, two systems' principle is different from Hongkongers', we need to hold calm and peaceful talks," Ho said.
The formation of the team also came after Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and four party colleagues met Feng Wei, deputy director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, last month.
The meeting was seen as Beijing offering an olive branch to the camp, but some pan-democrats were upset they had no prior knowledge of the session.
Group convenor Dennis Kwok, of the Civic Party, declined to say whether they were seeking to avoid more secretive meetings, reiterating only that the pan-democrats "embrace dialogue and believe it must continue".
Kwok formed the team with Ho, Lau and education-sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen.
He said 22 of the camp's 27 legislators agreed to inform the group if any Beijing official approached them for discussions.
"Some people have described such talks as 'secretive'," he said. "We agree that officials should not be afraid of making the talks more transparent and open."
University of Science and Technology political scientist Dixon Sing Ming believed that, by founding the group, the camp "is trying to win public support for meeting central government officials … while telling Beijing it will not be divided".
The five who did not sign up to the group are the NeoDemocrats' Gary Fan Kwok-wai, the League of Social Democrats' Leung Kwok-hung, independent Wong Yuk-man, and People Power duo Albert Chan Wai-yip and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen. Fan was sceptical the idea would work.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1859621/new-pan-democratic-foursome-act-camps-conduit-sharing-news
