President, when the Financial Secretary was announcing the Budget for the next financial year in the Legislative Council on 26 March, suddenly we learnt about the news that Mr Kevin LAU, the former chief editor of Ming Pao, was slashed in an attack. I was focusing on the contents of the Budget at that time. The news of the assault made me feel very uneasy. Hong Kong is a place where the rule of law prevails. Someone had actually dared to viciously attack a journalist publicly in broad daylight. This is indeed infuriating.
It cannot be said that Mr Kevin LAU is an acquaintance of mine. However, I have been a reader of Ming Pao for several decades. I have read many articles of Kevin LAU. While the line of thought of his commentaries is carefully structured, his analysis is insightful. Indeed, he is an admirable writer. According to reports, Kevin LAU was slashed many stokes in this attack. It is estimated that it will take a long time for him to recover. Here I would like to extend my best wishes to Kevin LAU and hope that he will recover soon. I also hope that members of his family will be able to overcome this unpleasant experience and lead a new life as soon as possible.
With the assistance of the Mainland public security department, two suspected hatchet men were expeditiously arrested in the Mainland and a number of people in Hong Kong suspected of being related to this case were also arrested. Despite the fact that the mastermind has eluded the dragnet of the law and his motive of the offence is still unclear, the high efficiency of the police demonstrated in the expeditious detection of the case is commendable. According to media reports, apart from the Mainland public security departments sparing no effort to assist in the detection of the case, the CCTV and telephone signals had also helped in tracing all the way the escape route of the suspects. Images of the faces of the suspects were captured by cameras and handed to public security authorities which took action to arrest them. In daring to choose to challenge the law in broad daylight on the day of attack, believing that their acts were concealed and done in great secrecy, the suspects had never dreamt that their whereabouts were captured by the “eyes in the sky”.
Although the crime rate in Hong Kong is low, many cases remain undetected due to the lack of leads. In fact, this incident has shown that information technology can play a very important role in the detection of cases. I hope that the police will employ more advanced technology to help the investigations into cases or prevent crimes from happening. At present, when crimes take place, the police will ask shops to carry out a search of their CCTV footages. However, the quality of these footages varies. As a matter of fact, CCTV cameras are installed in many private cars now. We have to follow the practice of other international metropolises and install more of the police’s “eyes in the sky”. I am aware that this issue is quite controversial. However, it still merits our discussion and consideration.
I hope that all staff of Ming Pao will endeavour to uphold the editorial policy adopted through the years, including making balanced, impartial and comprehensive reports, so that readers will be able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the actual situation. These are the traditional values Ming Pao has been so proud of over the past years.
I so submit.