Former Hong Kong Chief Executive, Leung Chun-ying has criticised the Government’s plan to remove a reference to ‘political neutrality’ from the Public Service Code of Conduct, saying neutrality should be a clear requirement.
However, Mr Leung (pictured) said all Government employees must be patriotic and loyal to the country.
“Abandoning the expression of neutrality will only give ammunition to people who oppose us,” Mr Leung said.
He offered his own definition of political neutrality — “it means that Civil Servants cannot reject a task from supervisors based on their political beliefs, or only comply in appearance… it’s that simple”.
The former Chief Executive’s comments come after authorities announced that the term ‘political neutrality’ would be dropped from the Code of Conduct.
Addressing lawmakers at the Legislative Council, Secretary for the Civil Service, Ingrid Yeung said recent events and the international situation necessitated the change.
“The Code of Conduct should be updated to reflect the core values that Civil Servants should have,” Ms Yeung said.
The address was her first to lawmakers since Chief Executive, John Lee presented his first policy address as Hong Kong’s leader last month.
Hong Kong employs around 175,000 Public Servants working across the various Government Departments.
The city has recently seen an uptick in resignations among bureaucrats, with the number of people leaving their posts doubling from the previous year.
Hong Kong, 3 November 2022
