Civic Party lawmaker argues committee should look at reasons behind unrest as he claims matter ‘cannot be resolved by arresting a few dozen participants’
UPDATED : Wednesday, 16 March, 2016, 1:21pm
The Legislative Council has passed a petition to set up a select committee to investigate the cause of unrest in Mong Kok last month.
The petition, proposed by Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu of the Civic Party and Cyd Ho Sau-lan of the Labour Party, was supported by 24 pan-democratic lawmakers.
In remarks delivered in the chamber, Yeung slammed Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying for labelling the unrest a “riot” before a detailed investigation was conducted. Yeung said Beijing loyalists had repeated Leung’s term, allowing “an unverified conclusion to grow in society”.
The lawmaker also lamented that after the chaos the government was only concerned with arresting and condemning those involved but refused to establish a committee to look into the cause.
“Many members of the public took part in the clashes with police,” the Civic Party lawmaker said. “This shows that the problem cannot be blamed on a small group ... This could be caused by strong dissatisfaction with the government, which cannot be resolved by arresting a few dozen participants.”
The incidents that took place in the Kowloon district on the first day of the Lunar New Year left 130 people injured and scores of people arrested.
To date, 50 people have been prosecuted.
The government earlier rejected calls to set up an independent inquiry into what happened in Mong Kok, saying that criminal investigations would suffice.
The select committee established today, however, lacked the authority to summon witnesses.
The first time a select committee was set up through a lawmaker’s petition was in 2013 to examine Timothy Tong Hin-ming’s lavish spending while he was commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1925801/hong-kong-legislature-backs-petition-probe-mong-kok-riot
