S'pore editorial's assault on Hong Kong's chiefs

SINGAPORE'Ss flagship newspaper yesterday launched a stinging attack on the SAR (Hong Kong) government's recent political performance.

The attack coincided with the first visit of new Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan to the republic.

The Straits Times, which had been generally sympathetic to the way the mainland has handled post-handover Hong Kong, hit out in a cutting editorial claiming that recent decisions by the Department of Justice and the legislature had undermined the "one country, two systems" formula.

The editorial, headlined "Crowning folly", criticised last week's controversial move by the outgoing provisional legislature to enact a new law granting the same privileges that were enjoyed by the British Crown to several state bodies in the SAR.

The paper also pointed to Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie's recent comment that it would not be in the public interest to press corruption charges against Hong Kong Standard publisher and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference member Sally Aw Sian.

Ms Aw was named in ICAC charges against one former and two current Standard executives.

It was equally critical of the decision not to prosecute Xinhua for exceeding the legal time limit to respond to The Frontier party leader Emily Lau Wai-hing's request to see any file it had on her.

This was despite Privacy Commissioner Stephen Lau Ka-men confirming the refusal violated the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

The editorial drew rebukes from major political parties.

Ronald Arculli of the Liberal Party felt it was unfair.

"The newspaper should look at the day-to-day running of the SAR justice system as a whole, rather than singling out individual cases, and draw its conclusions from them," he said.

Ip Kwok-him of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong said the paper should learn the truth about the cases.

 Published in the South China Morning Post. April 14, 1998