16 July 2008
Dear Mr Tse Wai Chun Paul
We refer to your letter dated 7 June 2008. We have considered the issues that you raised and have the following reply:
Lack of legal basis in your claim
You claimed in your letter that the TIC's Executive Director, as a "public servant" under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, should not run for the Legislative Council election. The TIC is a "public body" and its directors and officers are deemed "public servants" for the purpose of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance only. According to the Legislative Council Ordinance, only "prescribed public officers", but not "public servants", are prohibited from running for Legislative Council elections. Since TIC directors and officers are not "prescribed public officers", they can run for such elections if they so wish.
As a matter of fact, the TIC's past serving Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Honorary Treasurer, Director and even our current Executive Director had all run for previous Legislative Council Tourism Functional Constituency elections. No member of the public or the Government has so far officially challenged them in this respect. Your claim therefore has absolutely no legal basis.
Fair election does not exclude participation of stakeholders
The TIC's main objects are to represent and promote the general interests of the travel industry and its members, and to establish and maintain a sound self-regulatory mechanism so that TIC membership would be recognised as having integrity, competence and high standards of service.
In representing and promoting the interests of the industry in general, the TIC would naturally have interest in supporting the election of a competent candidate to the Legislative Council's Tourism Functional Constituency seat. The TIC Board is not aware of any representative bodies and professional and self-regulatory bodies represented in the Legislative Council's functional constituencies, such as the Hong Kong Bar Association, The Law Society of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, prohibiting their serving chairmen, directors and chief executives from running for functional constituency elections. Indeed, these professional bodies often provide a common and equitable platform for the candidates in order that their voices can be heard by members with the objective of ensuring the best candidates being elected.
The TIC Board does not see why any trade member of the Board should be unduly restricted or prohibited from exercising his or her right as a voter in the electorate to pledge support for individual candidates in his or her personal capacity.
TIC's well-established self-regulatory mechanism
The TIC's self-regulatory roles are performed by its well-established system of disciplinary committees, which are composed mainly of independent non-trade members appointed by the Government. Members and other related parties that are aggrieved by the decisions of the disciplinary committees may appeal to the Appeal Board, which is also composed mainly of independent non-trade members appointed by the Government. The TIC Chairman does not sit on any of the disciplinary committees or the Appeal Board. The TIC's officers, including the Executive Director, provide only secretarial support for these bodies, and have no voting right in any one of them.
You therefore made wrongful and unsubstantiated allegations in respect of the weight of the TIC's Chairman and Executive Director in their influence over disciplinary matters.
You also wrongly and unfairly claimed that the "TIC's performance in recent years has been widely criticised for its inadequacies and shortcomings". On the contrary, the TIC has in fact been acclaimed for its contribution to the development and self-regulation of the travel industry in Hong Kong.
We regret that the points raised in your letter are based on wrong facts and most unfortunately wrong interpretations / applications of the law and wrong understanding of common practices in the professions. We do not like to see the coming election of the Legislative Council be unduly restricted or adversely affected by prejudicial and unsubstantiated manoeuvres.
We surely shall continue to strive for the objects of the TIC, and support and facilitate fair, just and open elections for the good of the travel industry and Hong Kong.
Yours sincerely
By order of the Board
TRAVEL INDUSTRY COUNCIL OF HONG KONG
Ronnie Ho
Chairman