1989, the government repealed the section on its own initiative. In 1991 the final years of the colonial rule, the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance was enacted. A number of ordinances, including the POO that were thought to possibly violate the Bill of Rights had to be reviewed. In 1995, most provisions in the law was repealed by the Legislative Council as part of the government to bring Hong Kong law in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the licensing system was replaced by a simple notification procedure. In October 1996, Democratic Party's legislator James To introduced a private member's bill to amend section 6 of the POO to remove the power of the Commissioner of Police to control the extent to which music or speech might be amplified. The Secretary for Security Peter Lai moved an amendment to make it more explicit that the Commission of Police would exercise such power only if "he reasonably considers it to be necessary to prevent an imminent threat to public safety or public order". The Secretary for Security's amendment was carried and the 1996 Amendment Ordinance came into effect on 20 December 1996. SAR administration The People's Republic of China government was convinced that the 1995 amendment in the late colonial days was maliciously motivated and aimed at reducing legitimate public order regulatory powers of the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The PRC considered the Bill of Rights Ordinance and the 1995 POO to contravene the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Preliminary Working Committee for the HKSAR, an organ oversaw the preparatory works for the transfer of the sovereignty consisting members who were appointed by the PRC government, proposed to reinstate the POO. Therefore, on 23 February 1997, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a resolution that under Article 160 of the Basic Law that major amendments to the POO would be scrapped. Following up the NPC's decision, the Office of the Chief Executive Designate proposed amendments to the POO, together with the Societies Ordinance and issued a hastily prepared consultation document "Civil Liberty and Social Order" to the public in April 1997. The proposed amendments created widespread criticisms that the future SAR government intended to restrict Hong Kong people's civil liberties. The colonial Hong Kong government even distribute a commentary criticising the proposals in unusual manner. The CE Office scaled