The Legislative Council Why Bother?
Busin€s,s as tlnusual:
3
former chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, and now the newest
Audrey Eu, barrister, mother,
Legislative Councillor, romped home to victory as an Independent by u huge margin in the Hong Kong Island by-election in December. The contest was widely seen as a struggle between the Democrats and the oro-Beiiing forces. Ms Eu is also a member of the 800-strong Election bo--iiteé that will elect the new Chief Executive in 2002 and has served on the prestigious panel ofjudges for the FCC's annual Humal Rights Awards. y decision to run in the December byelection came as a surprise to many people, and not the least to myself and my family... I have never had any political inkling, let alone ambition. You might say, "Well, you were the Chairman of the Bar and also you ran in the
'small circle' election to get on to the Election Committee." (Though) many regard the Bar as being any difficulty
;,ïf,ffiTi out oroudly as issues on which we have a duty to speak and ofjudiciary independence such as rule of law, àn the administration ofjustice. We had the silent march"' the NPC interpretation. We spoke out about the RTHK independence, matters relating to press freedom, on the Public Order Ordinance, and such like. As far as getting on the Election Committee'.. it's just trying to exercise regard any of those matters your vot as
being
lWry when v
And Particularþ Ronald Arculli and
\A4rY bother?
like
Christine Loh chose to leave. I can't do better than ouote from what Christine Loh said when asked this qrr.rtion about me' "She is fresh enough to batter asked to ahead of you a few times'" \Arhen Christine was
endorse my candidac¡ she wrote..." I support her also because she has an enormous capacity to learn"' A lot of people lament the restrictions on Legco, but
I think
noi "nough is said perhaps about the powers that Legco does have. Not only does it pass laws and
it
actually is the public forum *h.r" u.ty often the Administration is called up to account for their policies and their conduct, and oublic attention of course is one form of power'
uoõtou. finances, but
'
8.,t this will only work
-
and I say this particularþ to
this would only work for so the members of the FCC long as there is media and public attention. When you go to a Legco meeting, you find TV cameras all around you and hordes of reporters sitting at the back. The next day the highlights get reported, and this is how the public opinion is generated and how public scrutiny is exercised. That of course is what it makes a democratic society.
ut I must confess that when the proposition (to ,run) was first put to me, my reaction was not to run, but to run away. And that was my second :reaction, and my third reaction as well. But, of course, in the end you just have to be true to yourself. I mean, you can't really say "direct election is a good thing, but thank you very much, it's not for me". So when put to the test, I can't say no. I enjoy what they call the "district work" and which I call "community work" that is getting to meet the citizens. In the past, I worked on a very narrow plane, because people came to me with their problems and I looked at it from the legal point of view. But legal solutions very often are time consuming and, of course, very costþ Nowwhen people come to me with their problems, the legal training helps,..but very often the solution is extra-legal, maybe persuading a government department
to look at (the matter) afresh...Legco actually is a platform to enable government officials to cooperate with you, to increase efficienc¡ greater transparency, and perhaps also much more equitable results. I also enjoy the Bills Committee because in the past when I looked at a piece of legislation, it was usually to conduct a legalistic argument with an opponent or the judge...Now I get involved at a much earlier stage as to what law ought to mean. That very often is much more rewarding than being in legal practice. I don't know how my new life is going to pan out... (but) it (might)...turn out to be a pleasant surprise for myself. I THE CORRESPONDENT FEBRUARY-MARCH
2OO1
Business Ethics in a GI ob'a} Environr:rÌent
Speaking atan FCC lunch, Anita Raddick of Body Shop fame described herself "as a renegade business leader...(who) has been totally influenced by the facttllrat I am an actiúst and an agitator. For the last 24 years, with the zealousness of a religious convert, I have been desperately trying to put idealism back on our busrness agenda." This excerpt deals with the battle of Seattle during the WTO conference. don't take these tssues seriously...if we act in a revolting way' people revolt, as they did in Seattle. Iam probably one of the few CEOs or ex-CEOs that was on the e are revolting if we
side of the protesters. We were some 18,000 people. We all took part in that protest. I had funded, thanks to Harper Collins' enormous advance (for Business as Usuaf ,
a four-day teach-in in
Seattle...every
auditorium, every church, every school hall, every union hall was open for all the people of Seattle to get real information about our economic institutions, this new religion called globalisation. \Arho were we? We were mothers,
fathers and grandparents...union leaders (and) unionists walking along-
side...environmentalists, human rights workers, religious leaders...agricultural leaders. We were every form of life...(But) we weren't prepared for rubber bullets... tear gas. We didn't know how to protect our faces; little kids were dressed up as demonic butterflies and endangered species.
We found that our voice or message was being distracted by the media who only focused on a few broken windows. \Arhat was our message? Our message was this: a world trade system that failed to put human
rights, failed to put economic justice and care for the
environment at the core of its trading negotiations. a nutshell. All we were demanding was to make businesses more reflective, more honorable, more responsible. What we have got is this new kind of
Thatwas the protest in
trading Ð/stem that acts as an uncontrollable
world government. The WTO and the group of unelected, unrepresented, trade officials who run it, are now I believe, effectively the world's top government, or the world's highest court. They have the right to overturn any local law or safety regulation if they deem it interferes with trade. I think, if that's the sovernment, I see it as blind government where only the bottom line can be seen. It recognises profits and loss, but it can't see human rights; it can't see
environmental management; it can't see our labour, sweatshop labour. It is a government without a heart. And in any organisation without a heart, you will find, the creativity of the human spirit diminish. I Business øs Usual
ByAnita Roddick Thorsons, London ISBN: 0 00 710796 x. PB. HK$r35
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