Bercow said he would allow Parliament to use "additional procedural creativity" to thwart any attempt to circumvent legislation.
His speech, at the annual Bingham lecture in London on Thursday, comes after a bill aimed at preventing a no-deal Brexit was made law Monday. Later that day, Parliament was suspended, or prorogued, for five weeks at Johnson's request.
But Johnson, who came to power on the promise that he would deliver Brexit by October 31, "do or die," has said he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than ask Europe for any delay. The new legislation compels him to do so if no deal is reached by October 19.
"One should no more refuse to request an extension of Article 50 because of what one might regard as the noble end of departing from the EU as soon as possible, than one could excuse robbing a bank on the basis that the cash stolen would be donated to a charitable cause immediately afterwards," Bercow said.
The Speaker announced on Monday that he will stand down by October 31 -- the day the UK is set to leave the European Union -- after a decade in the position.
Bercow said in his Thursday speech that it was "astonishing" that anyone entertained the idea of Johnson disobeying the law, as such a move "would be the most terrible example to set to the rest of society."
He said that if the government came close to ignoring the bill, Parliament "would want to cut off such a possibility and do so forcefully."
"If I have been remotely ambiguous so far, let me make myself crystal clear. The only form of Brexit that we have, whenever that might be, will be a Brexit that the House of Commons has explicitly endorsed," Bercow added.
He said that if "that demands additional procedural creativity in order to come to pass, it is a racing certainty that this will happen." Neither the "limitations of the existing rule book nor the ticking of the clock will stop it doing so," he continued.
Johnson has always insisted that his decision was a routine move that allowed the government to start a new parliamentary session with a fresh legislative agenda. Critics describe it as an audacious ploy to reduce the amount of time available to the opposition to block a no-deal Brexit.
But the Prime Minister has faced a string of setbacks since he announced his intention to prorogue Parliament.
He has lost his working majority in Parliament and failed to secure a new election. He also ousted rebellious Conservative lawmakers, including former Cabinet ministers and Winston Churchill's grandson, after they voted against him on the legislation passed on Monday.
On Wednesday, a Scottish court ruled that his government's advice to the Queen, which led to the five-week prorogation, was "unlawful."
According to the full ruling, released Thursday, one of the three judges said the suspension was motivated by the "improper purpose of stymying Parliament."
"There was, and is, no practical reason for a prorogation for what is, in modern times, an extraordinary length of time," Lord Carloway, Scotland's most senior judge, said.
The ruling paves the way for a showdown in the UK Supreme Court next week -- where judges will hear appeals on the Scottish case as well as an English challenge filed by prominent anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.
Bercow added on Thursday that the chaos since the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU has opened him to the idea that the UK may need a written constitution.
A potential tropical storm is brewing in the Atlantic and by late Friday could threaten areas of the Bahamas recently devastated by Hurricane Dorian, forecasters warned.
The new storm is not expected to pack nearly the destructive power of Dorian, a Category 5 hurricane that killed at least 50 people and left widespread damage across the islands. But the storm could pose a challenge to rescuers, who were still searching for about 1,300 missing people as of Thursday.
At 2 a.m. Friday, the approaching storm system, packing sustained wind speeds of 30 miles per hour, was about 210 miles southeast of the hard-hit Abaco Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was expected to gain strength and bring tropical storm-force winds — defined as sustained winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour — and heavy rainfall to the northwest Bahamas on Friday and Saturday, forecasters said. A tropical storm warning was in effect for much of the area.
Parts of Florida’s east coast could get tropical storm-force winds and heavy rain over the weekend, and residents were advised to monitor the storm’s progress. The storm was moving slowly as of Friday morning, at just three miles per hour, but forecasters expected it to gain speed through the weekend.
Significant storm surge was not expected, forecasters said. But parts of the Bahamas were expected to get three to five inches of rain, while the Florida coast through southeastern Georgia could get two to four inches.
The storm would be named Humberto if it becomes strong enough to be classified as the year’s ninth tropical storm. The National Hurricane Center said at 11 p.m. Thursday that it was 80 percent likely to reach that strength within 48 hours, and 90 percent likely within five days.
John Bercow has vowed "creativity" in Parliament if Boris Johnson ignores a law designed to stop a no-deal Brexit.
The Commons Speaker also said in a speech that the only possible Brexit was one backed by MPs.
A new law, passed before the suspension of Parliament, forces the PM to seek a delay until 31 January 2020, unless a deal or no-deal exit is approved by MPs by 19 October.
The PM has said he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than ask for a delay.
Responding to Mr Bercow's comments, Tory Brexiter MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said the role of the Speaker had become "irretrievably politicised and radicalised".
Meanwhile, Downing Street has announced Mr Johnson will travel to Luxembourg on Monday to hold talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and the country's prime minister Xavier Bettel.
Delivering a lecture in London, Mr Bercow said: "Not obeying the law must surely be a non-starter. Period."
He said it would be a "terrible example to set to the rest of society".
"The only form of Brexit which we will have, whenever that might be, will be a Brexit that the House of Commons has explicitly endorsed," he said.
"Surely, in 2019, in modern Britain, in a parliamentary democracy, we - parliamentarians, legislators - cannot in all conscience be conducting a debate as to whether adherence to the law is or isn't required."
He called it "astonishing" that "anyone has even entertained the notion".
If the government comes close to disobeying the law, Mr Bercow said that Parliament "would want to cut off such a possibility and do so forcefully".
"If that demands additional procedural creativity in order to come to pass, it is a racing certainty that this will happen, and that neither the limitations of the existing rule book nor the ticking of the clock will stop it doing so," he added.
The new law could force a Brexit delay beyond the current 31 October deadline by requiring the prime minister to request an extension to the UK's EU membership.
This would be done by making him write to EU leaders to prolong talks under Article 50 - the part of the EU's Lisbon Treaty which sets out what happens when a country decides that it wants to leave the EU.
The law forcing the PM to seek a delay unless MPs vote for a deal or no deal received royal assent on Monday, the final day that MPs sat in this session.
Parliament was suspended - or prorogued - in the early hours of Tuesday and is not scheduled to return until 14 October.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the government would abide by the law, but would "test to the limit" what it requires of ministers.
Mr Bercow said: "One should no more refuse to request an extension of Article 50 because of what one might regard as the noble end of departing from the EU as soon as possible, than one could possibly excuse robbing a bank on the basis that the cash stolen would be donated to a charitable cause immediately afterwards."
Sir Bernard, who chairs the constitutional affairs select committee in Parliament, said the Commons should "adapt itself" to a new role for the Speaker.
He accused Mr Bercow of launching a "personal attack" on the prime minister, insisting this would have been "unthinkable 10 or 15 years ago".
The current position allows the occupant "unregulated and untrammelled power", he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"It's a kind of majoritarian dictatorship position," he added.
Another Leave-voting Conservative MP, Michael Fabricant, said Mr Bercow had brought the office of Speaker into disrepute:
#Bercow’s comments last night that he will bend standing orders to thwart #Brexit on October 31st are beyond hypocritical. His bias has brought the office of Speaker into disrepute. Arrangements will have to be changed to ensure that future Speakers respect standing orders
On Thursday, Mr Johnson insisted the UK "will be ready" to leave the EU by the current deadline without an agreement "if we have to".
In response to the publication of the government's Yellowhammer document, an assessment of a reasonable worst-case scenario in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Mr Johnson reiterated it was "the worst-case scenario".
"In reality we will certainly be ready for a no-deal Brexit if we have to do it and I stress again that's not where we intend to end up," Mr Johnson said.
Mr Bercow has announced he will stand down as Commons Speaker and MP at the next election or on 31 October, whichever comes first.
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'No reason to be optimistic'
The Speaker's warning came as the EU's chief Brexit negotiator told political leaders in the European Parliament on Thursday that he could not say whether contacts with the UK government would result in a deal by mid-October.
Michel Barnier, in a speech to MEPs, suggested that negotiating a new withdrawal agreement remained uncertain despite discussions between Mr Johnson's team and the EU.
"I cannot tell you objectively whether contacts with the government of Mr Johnson will be able to reach an agreement by mid-October," he said.
"While we have previously reached an agreement, as far as we can speak, we have no reason to be optimistic."
He added: "We will see in the coming weeks if the British are able to make concrete proposals in writing that are legally operational."
EU officials say the UK is "dancing around the issues" in talks in Brussels on a Brexit deal.
Boris Johnson's government is seeking to renegotiate the withdrawal deal agreed by his predecessor, Theresa May, but discussions so far have been at a very general level.
The EU maintains the text of the withdrawal agreement is closed but it is still listening.
"The UK wants a less involved relationship," says one EU source close to the talks, "but it's not clear what that means in practice."
The prime minister's Brexit envoy, David Frost, is back in Brussels this week for further talks but time is running short.
UK officials say criticism of their approach, from the EU side, is unfair.
"We're having conversations this week which pick up on last week's discussions," one official says, "and we've agreed where to focus talks in the future."
"Let's get this done," is the message from Mr Johnson and he has been meeting, and will continue to meet, other EU leaders. But there's no sign any country is breaking ranks to negotiate separately with the UK.
So far this week, the UK side says it has presented ideas on customs and manufactured goods, while there has been further discussion on the non-binding political declaration which sits alongside the withdrawal agreement and outlines the future relationship between the two sides.
But while the government says progress is being made, the EU insists no formal proposals have been tabled.
"We want to keep this going," an EU source says. "But at some point the UK needs to give us a proposal. We can't negotiate without one."
Irish backstop
Both sides say the UK has asked for the protocol on Ireland to be stripped back pretty radically - to remove the backstop designed to keep the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as open as it is now under all future circumstances.
The EU has always said it is open to an alternative plan to guarantee an open border - but at the moment it doesn't think there is one.
The idea of an all-Ireland zone for food and animals (in which the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would follow the same rules after Brexit) has been explored and officials say the UK has presented "preliminary ideas" on how any solution in Ireland could involve the consent of all parties.
But UK officials reject the suggestion such discussions could evolve into a backstop - which would cover all aspects of trade - for Northern Ireland only, rather than the current plan, which would keep the whole of the UK in the EU's customs territory.
"It's still a no to the Northern Irish backstop," one official says.
Negotiating team
So, the Irish border issue remains the biggest obstacle to any new deal.
But nearly all the UK officials in the Brexit negotiations that produced the current withdrawal agreement, including the backstop, are no longer involved in the process.
"The core of the UK's negotiating team has gone," Joe Owen, of the Institute for Government, says.
"They've either left Whitehall altogether or gone to other jobs across government. There's been a big loss of institutional knowledge."
Many Brexiteers may regard that as a good thing - but it may not help produce quick results.
The size of the Europe unit in the Cabinet Office has been reduced dramatically but senior officials dispute suggestions the negotiating team is smaller or weaker.
"It's just that the support is coming from a different place," the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, John Manzoni, told MPs on Monday. "In fact there are probably more people [involved now]."
Future relationship
As well as replacing the backstop, Boris Johnson wants a clearer path to what he calls a "best-in-class" Canada-style free-trade agreement with the EU in the future.
But it has been made clear during the talks in Brussels that this would involve the UK getting rid of many "level playing field" elements - promises agreed by Theresa May to stick close to EU rules on things such as subsidies for business, workers' rights and environmental rules.
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That, though, could make it harder to reach an eventual agreement on a free-trade deal.
The EU is far more nervous about level playing field issues with the UK than it is with a country such as Canada because the UK is much closer geographically and a far larger trading partner, so it poses a much greater competitive threat.
And the less likely it is a trade deal can be done relatively quickly in the future, the more likely it is the EU will stick rigidly to the terms of the backstop.
"What we cannot do, and will not do, is replace a legal guarantee with a promise," said the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, at a press conference with Boris Johnson in Dublin this week.
Clock ticking
There is also a sense from those involved in the talks the UK's desire for a looser relationship involves not just economic issues but defence and security too.
All of this exasperates the EU.
There is plenty of churn behind the scenes but little certainty about anything.
Philip Rycroft, who was until recently the permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union, says it will be very difficult to get a deal done by mid-October.
"I think it is possible," he says, "but I don't see the other 26 countries ignoring the interests of Ireland… and time is crushingly tight."
If the EU were to shift position on any issue, it would want some degree of confidence a new deal could win the approval of the UK Parliament.
That could mean waiting for a general election - but if anything is going to be achieved in these talks, it is going to have to happen pretty quickly.
Japanese law grants both men and women up to one year of leave from work after having a child. Parents are not guaranteed pay from their employer, but are eligible for government benefits while off. However, only 5% of eligible fathers took paternity leave in 2017, according to government data.
The case, which appeared before a Tokyo court on Thursday, was brought about after the man claimed that his employer, sportswear maker Asics, purposefully sidelined him from his job in sales and marketing following his return from parental leave in 2015 and 2018. Asics has denied the allegations.
The case is among the first to tackle the issue of paternity harassment in Japan, where working culture often dictates that male employees work long hours and place company loyalty ahead of the family.
The man, who has requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his claim -- media in japan have honored the request -- took six weeks off after his first son was born in 2015 and then another 13 months of leave before his son's second birthday. Asics offers male employees up to two years paternity leave.
"This was a natural choice for me," he told CNN. "I wanted to to take care of my newborn and witness his growth. I also wanted to protect my wife from the baby blues."
The man claims that on his return to work he was transferred to a subsidiary company's warehouse and tasked with manual jobs, which he alleges resulted in an injury to his shoulder. He was then transferred to an office job.
"I was assigned to carry out research on disabled people's rights in the workplace and to translate company rules into English, two areas I have no experience or expertise in," he said. "I spend all day staring at my computer with not much to do."
Following the birth of his second son in 2018, he took a second parental leave lasting for 13 months. On return to work he claims the situation has continued and feels as if he is being pushed out.
The man wants his original role back and 4.4 million yen (US$41,000) in damages, according to his lawyer Naoto Sasayama. "The job he was transferred to was not the one he was hired for and this is very clear harassment against taking his paternity leave," said Sasayama.
Asics has refuted the man's allegations. "We have been negotiating sincerely with the legal representative of the employee as well as with several labor unions he belonged to," said the company in a statement. "We find it regrettable that we have not reached a final solution and we look forward to clarifying the facts in court."
According to Asics diversity policy, it is committed to meeting a government set goal of 13% paternity leave among eligible fathers. Currently, 8% of Asics' male employees take the leave they are entitled to.
'Constant harassment'
The case is among a number of similar disputes currently underway.
Glen Wood, a Canadian who has been living in Japan for around 30 years, was working as a brokerage manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley in the Fall of 2015 when his son was born six weeks premature. "My partner was working in Nepal at the time so he was born there and doctors told us they weren't sure he would make it," Wood told CNN.
He asked his employer for time off, as part of his paternity leave, but he claims he was denied.
"I was told I wasn't eligible because my family didn't have a maternity booklet, which is an official record of a pregnant woman's medical data," said Wood.
Despite the ruling, Wood decided to leave anyway. "My son was in a life or death situation and I needed to be by his side to get him a Canadian passport, a precondition to bring him back to Japan."
But on his return to his job five months later, in March 2016, Wood claims he was subjected to constant harassment. The company has denied the allegations.
"My responsibilities were cut by about 95%, with only secretarial work left for me to do. I wasn't told about meetings or given the wrong times and then criticized for not attending them. My emails and phone calls were left unanswered," said Woods.
He claims he was also asked to take a paternity DNA test, even though Japanese law provides leave for parents of adopted children and despite the fact he was the father of the child. He claims he was also forced to undergo two psychiatric evaluations.
In 2017, he decided to sue his employer and in 2018 was fired. Court proceedings are due to begin on October.
"I am asking for my job back," said Wood. "I really loved my work and career and don't want to have to give it up."
In a statement provided to CNN, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley denied that Wood was harassed. The company said it has submitted its evidence to the court through its lawyers and would refrain from commenting further as the case is ongoing.
Wood is now hoping his court case will set a precedent for other alleged harassment victims. "In Japan, it is considered almost treasonous to take time off from work, even if you are incredibly sick, have a dying relative or have just had a baby," said Wood.
A petition on Change.org supporting Wood and calling for "Zero-tolerance for Workplace Harassment in Japan!" had garnered over 3,800 signatures on Thursday.
"Most of my colleagues were very supportive, even if they couldn't take my side publicly for fear of losing their jobs," said Wood.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - This is a transcript of a talk given in late August by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to a group of businesspeople in the city. The transcript is taken from an audio recording of Lam’s remarks that was obtained by Reuters. Last week, Reuters published most of Lam’s remarks and is now able to publish them in full.
FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses a news conference in Hong Kong, China September 5, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
People who attended the talk say she spoke for about a half hour. The recording, which runs 24 minutes, captures the bulk of the event. Reuters has redacted the transcript in a few spots to remove names mentioned by Lam and questions asked by the audience.
CARRIE LAM:
In the last two years, one of the policy areas that I have spent most time in is innovation and technology. Now, I actually personally chair the steering committee.
In less than three months’ time, Hong Kong has been turned upside down, and my life has been turned upside down. But this is not the moment for self-pitifulness, although I shared with [name redacted] that nowadays it’s extremely difficult for me to go out. I have not been on the streets, not in the shopping malls, can’t go to a hair salon, can’t do anything because my whereabouts will be spread around the social media, the Telegram, the LIHKG, and you could expect a big crowd of black T-shirts and black-masked young people waiting for me.
I’m still brave enough to go and this afternoon, I’m still planning to go if my security guards tell me later on that I can still go. But it’s really, I don’t want to cause disruption, inconvenience to the organisers. But as I said, this is not the time for me to self-pity myself. This is a time I come here, and I do other closed-door sessions from time to time with people from all walks of life, and the two things I said is, it’s not about self-pityness, it’s about making a plea for forgiveness and then appeal for love.
I don’t want to spend your time, or waste your time, for you to ask me what went wrong, and why it went wrong. But for a chief executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable. It’s just unforgivable. If I have a choice, the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology, is to step down. So I make a plea to you for your forgiveness.
This is something that no matter how well intended, I just want to put this message across. This is not something malicious. This is not something instructed, coerced by the central government. This is out of a good intention, myself and some of my key colleagues to try to plug legal loopholes in Hong Kong’s system, very much prompted by our compassion for a single case, and this has proven to be very unwise given the circumstances. And this huge degree of fear and anxiety amongst people of Hong Kong vis-a-vis the mainland of China, which we were not sensitive enough to feel and grasp. And, of course, it has been exaggerated and misrepresented through very effective propaganda, if I may say so.
Now I want to make an appeal for love. It’s not to pity me, or to sympathise with me, but love for Hong Kong. And I’m sure [name redacted] have that strong passion and love for Hong Kong.
Then the question we need to ask, each one of us, is how to fix it, how to fix it? I have to say that I have no sort of ready solutions, because the scene changes so quickly. A week ago, we thought - ‘we’ means the core group within the government with some of our advisers – we thought that we have a relatively peaceful weekend, perhaps that’s the time to start a dialogue with sincerity, with humility, and trying to get some of Hong Kong’s fundamental issues resolved. But, unfortunately, the last two days have again totally thrown that away and we are seeing escalated violence to the degree of being insane. If you look at some of these TV footage and videos of how policemen have been attacked and so on.
But, of course, I’m sure in your hearts you will feel, and I’m sure a large number of people feel that I do have a solution, that is a political one. But I have to tell you that this is where the crux of the matter lies. Once an issue has been elevated to the situation – I’m sure [name redacted] has a better feel of that – to a national level, to a sort of sovereignty and security level, let alone in the midst of this sort of unprecedented tension between the two big economies in the world. The room, the political room for the chief executive who, unfortunately, has to serve two masters by constitution, that is the central people’s government and the people of Hong Kong, that political room for maneuvering is very, very, very limited. Because we were not trained to have that sort of national perspectives, and I could only keep on putting in what I feel is the Hong Kong situation and the Hong Kong sentiments. But whether those Hong Kong sentiments could override the national perspective and the national sentiments? I’m sure you know that now 1.4 billion mainland people already have formed a view about what is happening in Hong Kong. So, without going into a lot more details, I can only share with you discreetly that the room for me to offer a political situation in order to relieve the tension, nor to reduce the pressure on my frontline police officers in order to at least respond, or pacify the large number of peaceful protesters who are so angry with the government, with me in particular, of absolutely dead silence despite repeated participation in the protests, is what causes me the biggest sadness.
So without that, what other means we have is Hong Kong’s core value, that is the rule of law. The rule of law takes several forms, of course law enforcement, our police officers who have been suffering tremendously this time, especially on an occasion when they are supposed to celebrate 175 years of police establishment, and especially at a time when they were so proud of the crime figures which are still coming down. In fact, the first half year we still saw a drop of four percent in total crimes in Hong Kong, and that was the best seen in Hong Kong since 1972. And also they have commissioned a survey to commemorate this occasion done not by a pro-establishment group but by [name redacted], which indicated that confidence in the police after Occupy Central has rebounced to a historic high. That was the sort of background to how much the police have suffered.
So the rule of law requires law enforcement, so we have to tackle this escalating violence by arresting those offenders and then put them through the justice system, whether it’s prosecution by the Department of Justice in an impartial manner without any interference from myself or from the Central People’s government, and then finally in the courts.
With a little bit of hope that may help because we are seeing the numbers reducing. We started off by an estimate of about one to two thousand protesters who are very violent. Or put it that way, they are very willing to resort to violence. They may not be violent by nature but they are very willing to resort to violence, so, as described by one expert, this is the, sort of, early signs of anarchism, that they don’t trust the establishment, they don’t mind destroying things even if they don’t know what destruction will bring.
And if you look at yesterday’s various protests, it’s not only in the Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung area, but then it spread to Tsim Sha Tsui, Sham Shui Po, Wong Tai Sin. Every spot of confrontations, we’re talking about 50 to 300 at least, and they, actually because they were flowing so there could be some duplicates, so we might be seeing a smaller number. Whether it’s because of the 700-plus arrests that we have made has a bit of deterrent effect, or removed some of these factions, we have not had a full analysis, but we hope that with those efforts we may be able, as I said, I’ll be very honest with you, it would be naïve for me to paint you a rosy picture, that things will be fine or I have a deadline. But I can assure you that Beijing does not have a deadline. They know this will ripple on. So we have made special arrangements and there will be a 1st of October National Day celebrations but still having a lot of disruptions. So we are going for a modest, but solemn type of celebrations on the 1st of October, which means that they and ourselves have no expectations that we could clear up this thing before the 1st of October.
Another thing I want to assure you, that is my own feeling the pulse and through discussions, CPG (Central People’s Government) has absolutely no plan to send in the PLA. They are now doing, sort of, acts which I’m sure you’re quite aware of amongst the Communist Party, they’re just quite scared now. Because they know that the price would be too huge to pay. Maybe they don’t care about Hong Kong, but they care about ‘one country, two systems.’ They care about the country’s international profile. It has taken China a long time to build up to that sort of international profile and to have some say, not only being a big economy but a responsible big economy, so to forsake all those positive developments is clearly not on their agenda. But they’re willing to play long, they are willing to play long, so you have no short-term solution, Hong Kong suffers, you lose tourism, economy, you lose your IPOs and so, but you can’t do much about it. But after everything has been settled the country will be there to help with maybe positive measures especially in the Greater Bay Area. So our work on the Greater Bay Area has actually not stopped. We are still putting in proposals to the Greater Bay Area, especially something markets would love to hear, is a major ecological conservation plan which was drawn up by [name redacted]. She has left the government, I have brought her in on a part-time basis to draw up this ecological conservation plan for the entire Greater Bay Area in terms of biodiversity, air standards, water and so on.
So what could [name redacted] help us. Of course, every one of you has your own circle, you have your own friends, you have your own connections, you have your business contacts, so try to impress upon them that we really need to put an end to the violence, this is totally alien to Hong Kong and try to, as I said, appeal for understanding and love. We love this place, we love the people here. People used to be very peaceful and inclusive and so on. Instead of taking a position on every issue, either your friend or your foe, and so on.
When the time comes, now Hong Kong has survived the death pronounced by some people before 1997. At this point in time, although I’m actually pessimistic, but Hong Kong is not dead yet. Maybe she is very, very sick but she is not dead yet. We still have fundamentals here, we still have the nation behind us. So Hong Kong will have to go through several stages. The first is stamping out the violence, maybe doing other things in time to come which at the moment are not very available. Having gone through this stage, the next stage will be, in accordance with the bible, would be resurrection. We will need to come back to life, some life. So thereafter we want a reborn Hong Kong and a relaunching of this Hong Kong brand. [name redacted]
After her talk, Lam answered questions.
In answer to a question about the impact of the protests on schools and universities, Lam said:
Well, thank you very much [name redacted]. We will continue to help the schools. I am meeting a group of school principals within this week together with the secretary for education. Let me just answer your question in a very general way. I know certain factions in society have the feeling that we are not firm and strong enough vis-a-vis these protesters. But the difficulty is, of course, is always coming up with an argument that in the light of the majority of the public views and the people’s sentiments, this anger and this fear and so on, too strong a position of the government could be counterproductive. Although our research into overseas experiences in combating riots did require that sort of forcefulness. For example, in 2011, in Tottenham riots 15,000 rioters involved, 2,000 were arrested, 1,000 put to prison following a very quick process. From start to finish is 5-6 weeks, through special courts, night courts, 24 hours. What would you imagine to be the Chief Justice’s reaction if I were to tell him, ‘could you have special courts, night courts, in order to clear all these cases?’ We have arrested 700-plus now. So there are solutions that will be readily deployed in other countries that cannot be used in Hong Kong.
The second factor is apart from the 30,000 men and women in the force we have nothing. Really. We have nothing. I have nothing. That’s something, is something we avoid. So that means that whatever we do we have to take into full account the police assessment and reactions, so to give them some powers which they could not enforce because they’re outnumbered. They’re outnumbered not necessarily just by the violent protesters, they’re outnumbered just by people, which makes enforcement extremely difficult in terms of crowd management and crowd dispersal. So I’m not saying that we are not thinking about some of those firmer measures but just to explain to you that in the Hong Kong situation it’s very difficult, especially with the media. And this is perhaps one of Hong Kong’s weakest links, or the government’s weakest links, that we don’t have a strong enough, sort of, I wouldn’t say propaganda, I dare not say government carries out propaganda, but at least in terms of dissemination of factual information we are very, very weak. If we survive this crisis, well there will be a large number of revamping that I need to do in order to leave behind a better situation for my successor because there are so many weak parts in the government, which we have not fully realized. We did realize a bit, but we did not fully realize that it could be that bad, when we are going into, or right into, a crisis.
In answer to a suggestion from the audience related to the government’s public relations efforts:
I’m not aware of that 120-page document [name redacted]. But what I have asked for, but that is a little bit overtaken by events, that was almost a month ago, when we optimistically thought that we would have some sort of peaceful moments, that we could start to think about relaunching Hong Kong. So we sent out something by the information services department and invited eight such global PR companies, but unfortunately four immediately declined because that would be a detriment to their reputation to support the Hong Kong SAR government now, and two subsequently also turned away a request for meetings. So we’re left with two. I’m happy to meet with these two remaining personally, to see what advice they have, but their advice will only be more relevant after we have gone through this period.
This is also a very difficult moment for us because people take sides, and people are very worried about what they call this ‘white terror,’ this harassment on them. The revealing of details [in Cantonese]. And so it’s not even very difficult for us to get a production house, a design studio to do things for us, so things have to be done in-house or in the mainland. In the mainland then this causes problems. The smart lamp posts, somebody discovered that the raw parts came from a Shanghai factory and then they made a big story out of it again. But when the time comes, I certainly take up your advice that we should remove some of this bureaucracy and start talking to the people who could help, if they are willing to help.
Transcript by James Pomfret and Greg Torode in Hong Kong. Edited by Peter Hirschberg.
