Demanding Loyalty from HK's Civil Service

Thousands of civil servants protest against the government on September 3

The retaliation is starting.

Already the Hong Kong government is considering whether it should have all of its civil servants swear an allegiance to uphold the Basic Law, after there were complaints filed against 43 government employees for joining illegal rallies to going against the city's ruling principles.

Regina Ip needed extra protection walking around Central

At the Legislative Council meeting on Wednesday, Secretary for the Civil Service Joshua Law Chi-kong says the government is considering the suggestion made by pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee to require all 180,000 civil servants to take an oath to observe the Basic Law and "swear allegiance to the Special Administrative Region".

The complaints ranted from joining illegal assemblies to violent activities in demonstrations, or openly making statements against "one country, two systems".

Ip is trying to score more brownie points with China's senior leadership by making this suggestion that will surely frustrate people working for the government.

She is not a popular politician, first with Beijing for not being able to pass Article 23, the national security bill that resulted in half a million people coming out to protest against it and it was shelved indefinitely.

And Ip is not popular with Hongkongers -- the proof was seen on Monday lunchtime in Central when she had to walk around being surrounded by an entourage of riot policemen to protect her from verbal attacks by office workers.

Carrie Lam is living in a parallel universe. What about you?

She earlier tabled a motion urging Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to implement the suggestion through an executive order so that it wouldn't have to go through the regular channels of being debated in the Legislative Council.

Up until now, only senior Hong Kong officials and those in the judiciary must take the oath.

If this happens does this mean we would all be eventually expected to take this oath too?

Surely if you live in Hong Kong, you agree to abide by the rules and regulations of the city. The demand for loyalty is too extreme.

Leung Chau-ting agrees. He's the chief executive of the Federation of Civil Service Unions and describes the move as "wholly unnecessary", that implementing this suggestion would suppress free speech and expression.

Leung Chau-ting says making a pledge "wholly unnecessary"

He also feared if this was in place, it would deter a lot of young people from joining the civil service if they knew they could be punished for what they said or did outside of work.

"Very likely, people may feel that the government is trying to incriminate its workers by their speech... It does absolutely nothing to help the current situation."

Leung said it was critical for the government to unite its employees and ensure they serve Hongkongers without being affected by the social movement, and not put forward a plan that could produce the opposite effect.

So... if Lam wants to deescalate the situation, best not to implement Ip's suggestion. But watching Lam's track record of being completely tone deaf, it could possibly happen...

Tomorrow former chief executive Leung Chun-ying will address a crowd about his political ideas. It's a full house -- possibly full of hecklers...