【逃犯條例】林鄭再有錄音流出:政府除了三萬警力什麼也沒有

撰文:鄭榕笛
出版:更新:

特首林鄭月娥在上月底曾閉門會見商界談及修例風波,《路透社》繼月初披露部分她的發言錄音,惹來全城熱議後,昨(12日)晚上再公開部分提問環節的錄音。林鄭月娥向現場人士解釋政府除了三萬警力外,什麼也沒有,因此無論做什麼都必須考慮警方的評估和反應,給予警方更多權力,因為他們以寡敵眾。
林鄭在錄音中透露,政府曾邀請了八間國際公關公司協助,但有六間拒絕,餘下的建議要反修例運動平息後才能實行。

林鄭月娥表示政府除了三萬警力外,什麼也沒有,政府做什麼都必須充分考慮警方的評估和反應。(資料圖片/盧翊銘攝)

《路透社》刊載的英文原文及中譯如下:

After her talk, Lam answered questions.

In answer to a question about the impact of the protests on schools and universities, Lam said:

Well, thank you very much [name redacted]. We will continue to help the schools. I am meeting a group of school principals within this week together with the secretary for education. Let me just answer your question in a very general way. I know certain factions in society have the feeling that we are not firm and strong enough vis-a-vis these protesters. But the difficulty is, of course, is always coming up with an argument that in the light of the majority of the public views and the people’s sentiments, this anger and this fear and so on, too strong a position of the government could be counterproductive.

林鄭首先回答了某人士有關大專院校及中小學等校內示威的問題,表示將繼續協助學校,她會在該週內與教育局局長一起會見學校校長。她之後提及,社會上有一派人覺得政府對示威者態度不夠堅定和強硬。她指政府的困難在於要考慮到大多數公眾的觀感和情緒,若手段過硬可能會激怒市民,適得其反。

Although our research into overseas experiences in combating riots did require that sort of forcefulness. For example, in 2011, in Tottenham riots 15,000 rioters involved, 2,000 were arrested, 1,000 put to prison following a very quick process. From start to finish is 5-6 weeks, through special courts, night courts, 24 hours. What would you imagine to be the Chief Justice’s reaction if I were to tell him, ‘could you have special courts, night courts, in order to clear all these cases?’ We have arrested 700-plus now. So there are solutions that will be readily deployed in other countries that cannot be used in Hong Kong.

林鄭表示,雖然據當局研究過外國政府打擊騷亂的成功經驗,她提到英國2011年的托特納姆騷亂事件涉及1.5萬名示威者,2千人被捕。英政府召開特別法庭及夜間法院24小時審理案件,令1千名示威者在5至6週的極短時間內被判入獄。「你們能否想像到,若然我告知首席大法官要以相同方式處理案件,他會有什麼反應?我們現在已拘捕了約700人。」林鄭表示有些方案可以在其他地方執行,卻不適用於香港。

給警察更多權力,因他們以寡敵眾

The second factor is apart from the 30,000 men and women in the force we have nothing. Really. We have nothing. I have nothing. That’s something, is something we avoid. So that means that whatever we do we have to take into full account the police assessment and reactions, so to give them some powers which they could not enforce because they’re outnumbered. They’re outnumbered not necessarily just by the violent protesters, they’re outnumbered just by people, which makes enforcement extremely difficult in terms of crowd management and crowd dispersal.

林鄭月娥又講到,第二個不能對示威者太強硬的原因,是政府除了三萬警力外,什麼也沒有,這意味著無論政府做什麼,都必須充分考慮警方的評估和反應,給予他們更多權力,因為他們以寡敵眾,這不僅是在面對暴力示威者時,亦在面對市民時,警方要執法及控制人群都極為困難。

應對媒體是港府最弱一環

So I’m not saying that we are not thinking about some of those firmer measures but just to explain to you that in the Hong Kong situation it’s very difficult, especially with the media. And this is perhaps one of Hong Kong’s weakest links, or the government’s weakest links, that we don’t have a strong enough, sort of, I wouldn’t say propaganda, I dare not say government carries out propaganda, but at least in terms of dissemination of factual information we are very, very weak. If we survive this crisis, well there will be a large number of revamping that I need to do in order to leave behind a better situation for my successor because there are so many weak parts in the government, which we have not fully realized. We did realize a bit, but we did not fully realize that it could be that bad, when we are going into, or right into, a crisis.

林鄭月娥主動提到,應對媒體是香港政府最弱的一環,指政府不擅長處理公關宣傳,「如果我們能夠度過這場危機,就需要進行大改革,為下任特首留下更好施冶環境」,她反省指政府存在許多弱點,但當局尚未充分意識到這一點,或者的確意識到一點,但是當事情變為危機時,卻完全無意識到後果有多嚴重。

I’m not aware of that 120-page document [name redacted]. But what I have asked for, but that is a little bit overtaken by events, that was almost a month ago, when we optimistically thought that we would have some sort of peaceful moments, that we could start to think about relaunching Hong Kong. So we sent out something by the information services department and invited eight such global PR companies, but unfortunately four immediately declined because that would be a detriment to their reputation to support the Hong Kong SAR government now, and two subsequently also turned away a request for meetings. So we’re left with two. I’m happy to meet with these two remaining personally, to see what advice they have, but their advice will only be more relevant after we have gone through this period.

之後林鄭月娥回答關於政府公關工作的建議,提及政府在會見前約一個月,政府仍樂觀地認為社會有機會在假以時日後回復平靜,當局便可以考慮重新啟動香港。政府邀請了八間國際公關公司,但有四間立即拒絕,認為支持香港政府有損其聲譽,其後有兩間也隨之拒絕會見。林鄭月娥親自與餘下兩間公司見面,對方的建議要反修例運動平息後才能實行。

This is also a very difficult moment for us because people take sides, and people are very worried about what they call this ‘white terror,’ this harassment on them. The revealing of details [in Cantonese]. And so it’s not even very difficult for us to get a production house, a design studio to do things for us, so things have to be done in-house or in the mainland. In the mainland then this causes problems. The smart lamp posts, somebody discovered that the raw parts came from a Shanghai factory and then they made a big story out of it again. But when the time comes, I certainly take up your advice that we should remove some of this bureaucracy and start talking to the people who could help, if they are willing to help.

她又透露,政府目前處於非常艱難的時刻,因為群眾擇邊站隊,擔心白色恐怖,怕會被起底。對香港政府而言,不單是難以找到製作公司或設計公司協助處理公關事宜,即使工作由政府內部或內地公司做都會出問題,例如智能燈柱被發現有零件來自上海工廠,結果被大做文章。

林鄭最後表示,等待時機合適,會接受建議,改變官僚作風,並與有能力又願意幫助政府的人交談。