06/09/2003
South China Morning Post
Page 3

Civic and political groups in Hong Kong yesterday mounted a last-ditch fight against the enactment of a national security bill, which they fear will undermine freedom and civil liberties.

The bill, which aims to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law and ban acts of treason, subversion, sedition and the theft of state secrets, is currently being scrutinised by the Legislative Council. But pro-government lawmakers have been accused of rushing through the bill after officials requested it be passed by the end of this legislative year next month.

That effectively gives pro-democracy legislators and concern groups only three bills committee meetings over the next two weeks to find loopholes in the legislation. They also need to study the 20 amendments the government tabled last Tuesday and Saturday. They are expected to table their own amendments by the last weekend of this month, before the bill is put to a vote on July 9.

More than 20 groups from political, human rights, Christian and labour circles met for four hours yesterday with more than a dozen pro-democracy legislators, and reached a consensus to what amendments they would move.

These include scrapping the entire clause concerning seditious publications, in which any person found guilty of selling or publishing such material with intent to incite others could be jailed for up to seven years. They also want to scrap a clause in which information passed between the central and Hong Kong governments would be considered state secrets. And they want to see the inclusion of a public interest defence for people who disclose classified information.

Alan Leong Kah-kit, former chairman of the Bar Association and a member of the legal sector's Article 23 Concern Group, said lawyers would meet tonight to spell out their final demands on amendments to the bill. "The term national security is too broadly defined and there is a need to narrow it down to facilitate enough protection," he said. Among the other amendments they are considering are clauses to prevent treason conviction for the expression of views, and protection for people carrying out peaceful
demonstrations, including anti-war protests if and when China is engaged in a war with other states.

More than 20 legal experts and international activists will take part in a two-day conference on the bill at the University of Hong Kong on Saturday. Yesterday, labour activist and former mainland dissident Han Dongfang said he feared local unions could be banned if they encouraged their mainland counterparts to organise labour activities.

Kan Hung-cheung, local spokesman for the Falun Gong, which is banned on the mainland [...], said: "This law is custom-made for Falun Gong and all other similar groups."

Activists expect more than 100,000 demonstrators to join a march on July 1 as an ultimatum to the government to shelve the bill.

Democrat legislator Cheung Man-kwong said: "As the legislative process has turned out to be a big lie, our only remaining option is to take long-term opposition to this evil law on the streets."

SCMP (South China Morning Post) is a prominent Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper