Dear Robert,

The first month of the New Year almost comes to an end, but I still wish to send my belated New Year greetings to you wishing you another fruitful year in 2018!

Now that I finally got myself out of the political controversy surrounding the remark 'Kill, Without Mercy' that was made during a rally staged on 17 September 2017 to call for ridding off any attempts for seeking Hong Kong Independence and the removal of Mr. Benny Tai, Associate Professor at the HKU Law Faculty who was responsible for initiating the Occupy Central in 2014.

To my surprise, twisting and misinterpreting my intention by the pan-democratic camp resulted in the tabling of a censure motion against me by fellow legislator Hon. Claudia Mo in last October. I had since been haunted by such disingenuous accusation and targeted by the opposition who willfully interrupted the normal LegCo businesses by causing such an uncalled-for censure motion.

On last Thursday, the censure motion against me was finally debated at the LegCo. In defense, I argued that the accusation raised against me was unfair, unsubstantiated as the remark was taken out of context and distorted by the opposition.

I had absolutely no intention or whatsoever to incite the public to resort to violence when I said 'Without Mercy' to echo with a guest’s remark of “Kill”. Everyone who knows Chinese would understand “Kill, Without Mercy!” could also connote the meaning of “zero toleration!” and not necessarily mean to commit any crime of murder or the like. I Had explained it over hundred times before and I took the opportunity to explain it further in the Legco that my patriotic attitude was inspired by by Yue Fei「岳飛」, an ancient Chinese character who pledged loyalty and patriotism to his country wholeheartedly. He was a well known figure and hero to almost all Chinese.

On the other hand, I also took the Former Prime Minister of The Republic of Singapore the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew as another role model whose wisdom and courage in tacking any tough political challenges fearlessly. One of his famous quotes in countering any insidious and malicious acts from his political adversaries is: “Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac. That’s the way I had to survive in the past ……". I couldn’t agree more with him!

I also questioned why the opposition especially those coming from the education and social welfare sectors who chose to turn a blind eye on the unruly behavior of students and abusive languages they used against their institutes or government officials. On the other hand, they took me on for a remark that was not “ill-intent”! This is an act of double-standard and a typical case of 「只許州官放火，不許百姓點燈」“Only allowing officials to set fire while average folks are prohibited from putting lights on". They are not doing their job in fulfilling their responsibility in serving the public as legislators!

Another example where the opposition has applied double-standard was when they harbored Messrs Leung and Yau when they failed to respect the ‘swearing in' procedures by using indecent expression or modified version of the oath by others. Not only such behaviors were intolerable, but they were against the law too. Unfortunately, the opposition considered those being alright.

Thanks to the support of the buddies in the pro-establishment camp, the motion against me was defeated last week. Now I can put it behind and move on with my other commitments at the Legco.

When I swore into office in October 2016,I pledged to 'uphold the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In other words, “upholding national unity and territorial integrity, maintaining the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong” are the proper matters to be pursued. I did my best to criticize pseudo scholars who advocated for 'Hong Kong independence' amongst the young people in campus. I voiced out my support for the Police in curbing violence erupted at public rallies. No doubt, it is highly essential for us to maintain the rule of law which is an important bedrock for maintaining the stability and prosperity in Hong Kong. In doing so, I would urge the government to enact for Article 23 as soon as possible so that any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government may be prohibited.

In my opinion, a Legislative Council Member being a public figure must act in accordance with the Basic Law and commit himself or herself to discharge the duties as aforesaid. We may have different views and ways of handling things, but all in all, we must not do anything contrary to the Basic Law. Nor should we act in contrary to the interest of Hong Kong which forms an inalienable part of China. We should be able to resolve our differences and work together to put Hong Kong back on the track. I am happy to extend my gesture of goodwill to the opposition or anyone who does not see eye to eye with me on some of the issues.

I wish to stress that playing political tricks or filibustering to tackle political issues at the Legco will certainly waste time and resources which will no doubt cause detriment to Hong Kong. Recent tactics used by the opposition in stalling LegCo proceedings will certainly achieve nothing but adversely affect the future development of Hong Kong.

The Legislative Council by-election will be held soon in March. I do urge that our voters will return someone who are of matured and reasonable mindset rather than any naïve greenhorns to the Legislative Council. Or else, we may have to repeat the ridiculous saga as what we had been through before. In that case, we will all lose!

Yours sincerely,

Junius Ho