If you are a police officer of the City of London and your salary is paid by the city government, you will obviously regard yourself as a London City police officer. But surely you will take pride in saying you are also a United Kingdom (UK) police officer. Your oath of allegiance would not merely be to the City of London but to the country. You will also feel honored if you are selected to attend prestigious command courses in the UK National Police Staff College, where participating officers from different counties are regarded as one big family.

Hence it is difficult to understand the fuss raised by the opposition media and the new civil service union, which are criticizing Secretary for Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen for saying in a public forum on June 7 that HKSAR civil servants have a double identity that involves serving both the SAR and the central government. Nip explained, “Hong Kong’s civil servants are public officers for the country too. They should realize that as a civil servant, they are not serving just the SAR, but also the country, which will, in turn, benefit Hong Kong.” This is plain common sense. What’s wrong with that?

This message should be viewed in a positive light, which is to enhance the “one family” spirit and closer cooperation between SAR civil servants and their mainland counterparts. The problem with the older SAR civil service mentality, inherited from the British Hong Kong government, is that they should keep their mainland counterparts at a distance, even adopting a hostile attitude toward them. But it is time that such an anachronistic mentality be swept under the carpet of history and be replaced with a passion for strengthening the concept of “one country”, of which Hong Kong is an integral part. Pragmatically speaking, it goes without saying that Hong Kong’s future depends to a large extent on its successful integration into the country’s overall development plan. And we are so lucky that such an opportunity practically lies at our doorstep with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area project. HKSAR civil servants from the transport, public works, trade, finance, and communication sectors as well as law enforcement must now take a macro view of the potential mutual benefits that can be derived from cross-border collaboration, as Hong Kong can no longer envision any development in isolation. They should approach the Greater Bay Area development with the mindset of “one family”.

The best way to remind the civil servants of their double identity is to require them to swear to uphold the Basic Law and take an oath of allegiance to the motherland and the SAR government. This should be conducted during the new recruits’ inception and their subsequent promotions, and held under solemn ceremonies where the national anthem should be sung

Nip also rightly clarified that the concept of “political neutrality” does not mean that civil servants should not take sides. In fact, they are obliged to side with the government, as all civil servants have the responsibility to support government policies, irrespective of their political beliefs. It really is but an extension of the Executive Council’s principle of collective responsibility. This is demonstrated by the Australian High Court’s landmark case in which an immigration officer was ruled to be rightly dismissed for using a pseudonym to criticize the government immigration policy on her Twitter account.

Unfortunately, in the last 11 months of violent social unrest, we witnessed numerous examples of bad apples in the civil service openly participating in anti-government protests, and posting in social media disrespectful personal attacks against the chief executive and the government — both entities they are supposed to be loyal to. We have also seen a High Court judge abusing his position in joining a signature campaign against the extradition bill, with some even supporting and joining the riots and the Hong Kong independence movement.

Civil servants serving the British Hong Kong government are regularly reminded not to speak to the press without authorization, as by virtue of their joining the civil service, they have forfeited their right to criticize the government, and that the only recourse for them if they do not like the official policy is to resign.

Evidently, in view of the chaos that these rogue civil servants have created, the government should reinstate this strict guideline. The reality is that those civil servants who resigned and joined the private sector would not be allowed to criticize their employer publicly either.

When the national security law is in place, the Civil Service Regulations should be updated to include a strict prohibition for civil servants to express support for separatism or independence, even in their private social media. At the same time, political vetting, as part of the initial integrity checking, should be introduced to weed out those misfits in the civil service or to block them from joining.

Another serious security problem that came to light is the numerous disclosures of government internal documents and data on social media. A lot of police officers’ personal and family information is believed to be divulged by unscrupulous civil servants in various government departments to facilitate the opposition’s doxxing. Such unauthorized disclosures during the British administration could bring dire consequences for the civil servants concerned as it is strictly prohibited under the Official Secrets Acts. Such a ban might have been relaxed by the SAR government, leading to embarrassing disclosures of government information. It must be reinstated and regular reminders sent to all civil servants.

During the British colonial era, there were schemes in which civil servants were sent to UK for work secondment in various UK government departments, some for as long as three years. There is no reason why such schemes cannot be reintroduced to second civil servants to the mainland civil service, which will undoubtedly enhance greater mutual understanding and cooperation, and the “one family” spirit.

Finally, the best way to remind the civil servants of their double identity is to require them to swear to uphold the Basic Law and take an oath of allegiance to the motherland and the SAR government. This should be conducted during the new recruits’ inception and their subsequent promotions, and held under solemn ceremonies where the national anthem should be sung.

The author is an adjunct professor of HKU Space, and a council member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies. He is also the retired deputy commissioner of the ICAC and currently an international anti-corruption consultant.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.