Pro-Beijing lawmaker Wong Ting-kwong has apologised for omitting “Hong Kong” from his his oath during the swearing in session at the Legislative Council meeting on Wednesday. He said he has requested to retake the oath at next week’s meeting.
Wong, representing the import and export industry functional constituency, failed to say “Hong Kong” in the phrase “People’s Republic of China Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” in Cantonese, on one occasion. The oath contains three instances of the same phrases.
When approached by a reporter from Oriental Daily, Wong was in disbelief that he had missed the words. But he then admitted the mistake after he watched a recording supplied by the reporter.
“It was an unintentional mistake,” he said. “I put effort into reading it – if the clip did confirm I missed the words, I must apologise to the public.”
When asked whether there was any difference between his mistake and the oaths taken by the three lawmakers which were not confirmed by the LegCo secretary-general, he told the newspaper that his mistake did not stray from the principle of the oath. He said the three other incoming lawmakers were intentionally conducting dishonourable actions during the oath taking.
In a statement on Thursday, the government denounced the behaviour of some lawmakers, saying they “behaved in violation of the dignity expected of LegCo members, or even spoke or acted in an offensive manner that harmed the feelings of our compatriots.”
Wong’s oath was accepted by the LegCo secretary-general Kenneth Chen Wei-on on Wednesday. But Wong later told the newspaper that he has requested to retake it.
