HK lawmakers quote Gandhi, challenge China in parliament

HONG KONG: The first session of Hong Kong’s new parliament on Wednesday saw several young lawmakers diverting from the official oath, including two who refused to

HONG KONG: The first session of Hong Kong’s new parliament on Wednesday saw several young lawmakers diverting from the official oath, including two who refused to pledge allegiance to China and one who quoted Mahatma Gandhi to say no one could imprison his mind.

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The swearing-in session at the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, a “special administrative region” of China, took on farcical overtones as one young lawmaker inserted swear words into her oath and another took eight minutes to complete the oath, pausing for several seconds between each word.

Nathan Law, the youngest lawmaker in the Legislative Council’s history after he was elected at the age of 23 last month, quoted Gandhi before taking the oath. “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind,” he was quoted as saying by the media.

Law, a former leader of the prodemocracy Umbrella Revolution of 2014 who now heads the Demosisto party, quoted Gandhi while responding to a government warning that those who refused to take the oath properly could lose their seats, the South China Morning Post reported.

Pro-independence lawmaker Yau Wai-ching, 25, who belongs to the Youngspiration party that emerged from the Umbrella Revolution, held up a blue banner with the words “Hong Kong is not China”. She deviated from the official oath, which calls on lawmakers to swear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, and instead said: “I do solemnly swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Hong Kong nation.”