The Standard : Legco first on Lehman fizzles out

Standard, The (Hong Kong) - Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Author: Diana Lee

The first open meeting of the Legislative Council subcommittee probing the Lehman minibonds saga got bogged down in party bickering yesterday and failed to reach agreement on confidentiality.

Civic Party legislator Ronny Tong Ka-wah said meetings should be transparent and documents made available unless witnesses request confidentiality. This demand must be justified with evidence submitted to subcommittee members and the legal adviser, he said.

``In principle we should not accept a general request. I would not accept, for example, a bank claiming each and every document is confidential,'' Tong said.

However Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong legislator Chan Kam-lam disagreed, saying mutual respect and mutual trust should exist between witnesses and subcommittee members.

``Even individual people have their privacy, so why not companies?'' Chan asked.

The Democratic Party's James To Kun-sun said mutual trust has nothing to do with the probe.

``We are here to find out the truth,'' To argued. ``What if the banks claim the staff training manual [for selling structured financial products] is classified material? ``What's the point of a public hearing if everything could be treated as classified so easily? We talk about mutual trust among legislators, not between witnesses and legislators.'' Lawmakers also failed to compromise on whether legislators should sign a confidentiality agreement.

The pan-democrats said they did not object but raised doubts about the effect such a pledge would have on lawmakers.

Philip Wong Yu-hong, subcommittee vice chairman and a commercial sector lawmaker, said ensuring lawmakers will keep the confidential submissions confidential is more important. Classifying what is confidential is another issue.

The Legco Secretariat will host a briefing on December 4 to inform lawmakers on matters they should know about the Lehman probe, including the general principles of what information should be treated as classified and confidential.

Meanwhile, Emily Lau Wai-hing of the Frontier, again failed to persuade members to support the pan-democrats' demand for a smaller subcommittee, which currently has 24 members.

Subcommittee chairman Raymond Ho Chung-tai said he hoped the discussion on the subcommittee's size is finally over and that members may unite to face the challenges ahead.

When the subcommittee meets will be decided on Friday. It is expected to host meetings every Tuesday and Friday morning starting early next year.