The recent jailing of Occupy activists in Hong Kong, and the proposed changes to the city’s extradition law, have once again brought the discussion around the special administrative region’s legal autonomy to the fore. With the goal of documenting and analysing such developments, a post-Occupy organisation, the Progressive Lawyers Group, has released its first-ever annual report outlining the state of the rule of law in Hong Kong.
With a yellow ribbon pinned to his shirt – an icon of the Occupy protests – Jason Ng, who is joint convener along with lawyers Chris Ng and Billy Li, says that the PLG was founded with a desire to continue the “Occupy spirit.”
“We cannot just let that be a flash, we have to sustain interest, we have to sustain peoples’ hope and motivation and understanding of politics,” he told Asian Legal Business.
“At the end of the Occupy movement, with it not resulting in concrete outcomes, people were disillusioned and there was a period of hopelessness and protest fatigue. Arguably, we’re still in that period,” Jason Ng says, noting that there still are “big issues,” such as the extradition proposal and the abduction of the booksellers which do stimulate public outcry.
The 300 – page bilingual Hong Kong Rule of Law Report, which was released in April prior to the Occupy sentences being announced, examines such concerns in depth.
Comprised of eight chapters, which provide a deep-dive into the significant issues that have impacted the city’s rule of law, the report also offers recommendations for the Hong Kong SAR government and the public while documenting the shifting political landscape and building public awareness.
“I think the Hong Kong Rule of Law Report is our most important project in terms of fulfilling our goal,” Chris Ng says, adding that understanding is key.
“We have to be neutral and professional, this is demanded by our profession, so when I say we’re educating the general public, we’re trying to provide tools via our legal analysis so that the public will be able to understand the reasons for certain policies, so they can make an informed decision,” he adds.
Despite the PLG members’ time constraints (the volunteers have full-time jobs but spend more than 15 hours a week working on group matters), the 100-member group comprising of lawyers and law students wants to channel its energy into something productive.
Li says that many of the student members experienced the Occupy protests. “So, this is a platform for them to stay involved in the Umbrella movement,” he adds.
While it does provide a space to critique policy in Hong Kong, it is not an “anti-government group,” or an opposition group, Jason Ng says. “We’re a legal professional group and we’re here to break down and unpack information for the public and let them make a decision.”
Adds Chris Ng: “I can accept that some people will never agree with us, that’s fine. In a diverse society that’s normal. What we are asking is that our way of life, our fundamental rights in Hong Kong, are protected to honour ‘one country two systems’. We are not opposing the ties between Hong Kong and China. We are Chinese too, but we’re also Hong Kong people.”
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