Hong Kong: Oath of allegiance administered to 90 "Pro-Beijing" lawmakers

On Monday, the oath of allegiance was administered to all 90 members of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's (HKSAR) seventeenth legislative council by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong Free Press reported. This comes on the heels of Beijing's electoral reforms in HKSAR and at a time when several media outlets in Hong Kong are being targeted. Many media outlets' employees have been detained by state officials. Notably, two legislators retook their oath after missing a few words, while three legislators elected to take their oaths in Mandarin rather than Cantonese, a local language.

Chow Man-Kong, a Lingnan University scholar, was the first to take his oath in Mandarin, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. Such events have occurred in Hong Kong since China passed the contentious National Security Law. The Secretary-General of the Secretariat of LegCo Kenneth Chan asked Michael Luk of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and Tik Chi-yuen of Third Side to repeat their oaths. They both claim to be members of the anti-establishment camp.

The event was held in the LegCo Complex's Chamber. After jointly singing the national song of China with HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the oath administrator, the parliamentarians began to take an oath to obey the Basic Law of the HKSAR and swear allegiance to the HKSAR one by one, according to Xinhua. Hong Kong's first race to pass pro-Beijing or patriots-only legislation began last month. The amendments reduced the number of seats that could be directly contested and mandated that candidates be vetted by government personnel.

Members were asked to repeat their oaths

The members were asked to repeat their oaths since Luk omitted out the word "councillor" from his oath while Tik missed out "Hong Kong" from "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China." Another LegCo (Legislative Council) councillor-elect, Gary Chan of the DAB (Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong), failed to raise his right hand during the pledge of loyalty, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.

Furthermore, pro-government candidates stormed into the expanded legislature in Hong Kong's patriots only elections, which saw a record low voter turnout. According to the Hong Kong Free Press, almost 1.3 million people cast ballots, resulting in a voter turnout of 30.2%, 5.6% points lower than the previous low in the 1995 legislative election under British colonial authority. Many people boycotted the polls, demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the tainted and undemocratic manner in which they were held.

Following the electoral change, Hong Kong's democracy has been thrown into disarray, with pro-Beijing or patriots only members of the HKSAR legislature. According to Al Jazeera, 40 seats were chosen by a committee stacked with Beijing supporters, while the remaining 30 were filled by functional constituencies, which are professional and business areas like as banking and engineering.

According to the most recent results, pro-Beijing and pro-establishment candidates have won nearly all of the seats. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand have expressed deep concern over the Special Administrative Region's electoral system's degradation of democratic characteristics.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: ANI