Tommy Cheung maintains that the Liberal Party is not an opposition party, though it sometimes may appear that way when party leader James Tien and other party members are sarcastic and critical of the government.

Cheung insists the party is made up of people who love the country, and love Hong Kong and who want to do what's good for Hong Kong. He says the party will continue to support policies that are good for Hong Kong as it always has done in the past. When party members criticize the government, they do so not because they are bitter over the failure of Henry Tang Ying-yen, a former core member of the party who ran in the chief executive election which saw Leung Chun-ying emerge as the winner, but because they disagree with the government policies concerned.

"Certain policies such as the ban on baby powder formula, the special stamp duty, the buyers' stamp duty and the double stamp duty are not good policies," Cheung argued.

"Whilst the powder formula ban targets mainland visitors, the various stamp duties cannot bring down property prices and are even being criticized by the foreign businessmen. We oppose these policies, not to target Leung Chun-ying individually, but the government as a whole. Even if Henry Tang were the CE, we would oppose him if he introduced such policies.

"Remember when Henry Tang was financial secretary, he commenced public consultation on a goods & services tax. My party colleague Vincent Fang from the import & export constituency and I organized protests against such a tax, even though Henry was our close friend," he said.

Contact the writer at joseph@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 09/20/2013 page8)