Sunday, January 28, 2007

Announcement of CE Election Public Forum Organized by Cross-Sector EC Members

Today, I represented the IT sub-sector in a press conference held with the representatives from seven other sub-sectors, and together we, about 100 Election Committee members, declared that we will co-organize a public forum for the Chief Executive candidates on March 7, 2007. The candidates who are expected to receive formal nominations, Donald Tsang and Alan Leong, will be invited.

The sub-sectors involved so far include: Accountancy; Architectural, Surveying and Planning; Education; Engineering, Higher Education; Information Technology; Legal; and Social Welfare. The forum, and the Preparatory Working Group for the forum, will be set up and operated in a totally non-partisan, neutral, fair and open basis. All members of the Election Committee are being invited to join our preparation as well as the forum itself.

We hope that the forum will be an opportunity for the general public to participate in the CE election. We anticipate that the forum will be carried to our citizens by various electronic media. As we saw a clear mandate from the voters on December 10, 2006, for a competitive CE election, and a forum like this will enhance the level of accountability and openness of the CE election, I strongly believe that it is consistent with our mandate to make the election more competitive.

We will shortly set up a mechanism for citizen participation, including getting tickets for the forum, as well as posting questions to the candidates ahead of time. The forum is tentatively set on March 7, 2007, in the Academic Community Hall of the Hong Kong Baptist University.

2 Comments:

At 1:40 AM, Blogger Charles Mok said...

Press Release

28/01/07

Public Forum for CE Candidates organised by
Cross-sector Election Committee Members

About 100 or so Election Committee members from 8 different sub-sectors have jointly decided to co-host a public forum for the Chief Executive candidates in early March 2007. The Forum will be open to all members of the public and the media.

Today, formal invitation letters have been sent out to the two candidates who are expected to receive formal nominations, Mr Alan Leong and Mr. Donald Tsang.

The Preparatory Working Group has reached agreement with a TV Broadcaster and a Radio Station who would arrange live broadcast of the Forum. This will likely be the first live broadcast of a debate among Chief Executive candidates in the history of Hong Kong.

The 8 sub-sectors involved in the organisation of the Forum include those of 1) accountancy; 2) architectural, surveying and planning; 3) education; 4) engineering; 5) higher education; 6) information technology; 7) legal; and 8) social welfare.

All members of the Election Committee are welcome to join the Preparatory Working Group. The forum will be organised on a non-partisan basis and in a fair manner. Senior media personalities will be invited to be moderators of the forum.

The purpose of the Forum is to allow an opportunity for the general public to participate in the Chief Executive Election as opposed to it being a closed door affair between members of the Election Committee and the candidates.

The central theme of the Forum is that the selection of the Chief Executive concerns every Hong Kong citizen. It should not be limited to issues which only concerns Election Committee members, and furthermore it must not be a market place designed for the exchange of power and vested interests.

Accordingly, the Forum is open to every member of the public. Questions will be asked on issues which concern the whole of Hong Kong.

The date of the Forum is tentatively set on 7 March 2007 at the Academic Community Hall, 8 p.m. As soon as further details are confirmed, members of the public will be offered entry tickets to the forum.

Contact person: Dennis Kwok (Tel – 9122 4230) Charles Mok (Tel – 91955156)

 
At 12:00 AM, Blogger Charles Mok said...

TVB news interview on Jan 30 2007:
http://news.tvb.com/630pm/lcd.html?2007/0130/asx/10_200k.asx&2007%u5E741%u670830%u65E5%20%28%u4E8C%29

Also, RTHK Radio 1 program 自 由 風 自 由 PHONE :
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio1/openline_openview/20070130.html

 

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