Lawmakers slam filibusters as damaging city’s interests
Pro-establishment legislators on Sunday voiced their objection to the opposition camp’s filibustering tactics to adjourn debates on the Legislative Council’s Rules of Procedure amendments, saying such conduct wastes time at the expense of Hong Kong people’s interests.
At a campaign rallying for support for amending LegCo’s rules, lawmakers also urged that debates on revising LegCo’s rule book, which the opposition’s blatant filibustering attempts halted last week, should resume on Wednesday in order to enhance the rule book by plugging loopholes that may be used for vicious filibustering.
Lawmaker Starry Lee Waiking said LegCo meetings are for deliberating on the government’s policy proposals, not a stage for sagas caused by filibusters.
Lee — also the chairwoman of the city’s largest political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) — said more than 220 hours were spent in quorum calls in the previous LegCo term.
Many bills intended to improve people’s livelihoods fell victim to filibusters, she pointed out, citing the Fire Services (Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Private Columbaria Bill, which were both submitted to the city’s legislature during its 2012-16 term but were only approved by the current LegCo session (2016-20) because of the opposition’s filibustering moves, such as launching quorum calls.
Former DAB lawmaker Tam Yiu-chung, who used to chair LegCo’s Committee on Rules of Procedure, said most Hong Kong people were against filibusters as they want the city to move forward.
He urged lawmakers to make the most of the LegCo meeting on Wednesday, striving to bring out concrete discussion on amending the Rules of Procedure.
Legislator Priscilla Leung Mei-fun called on the public to show their support.
Public disapproval of filibustering tactics can help prevent the opposition from turning LegCo meetings into worthless sessions that do no good for society. And the city deserves a functioning legislature that runs efficiently and with solemnity, Leung added.
Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress Stanley Ng Chau-pei, who is also the chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, said filibusters inflicted a lot of suffering on the city’s employees.
He gave construction-industry employees as an example, saying their earnings dropped sharply because of delays filibusters caused for new projects.
The construction sector complained about the scarcity of new projects approved, which affected the industry
Many bills intended to improve people’s livelihoods fell victim to filibusters.” Starry Lee Wai-king,
and workers’ lives. Among the 45 new projects, worth HK$130 billion, the government had tabled to LegCo since late last year, only six projects, worth HK$36.7 billion, had been approved, the sector noted in July.
The opposition camp on Sunday said they would upgrade their protest against the amendments to the Rules of Procedure by camping outside the LegCo complex and paralyzing the legislature.
Lo Wai-kwok, lawmaker representing the engineering sector in the city, criticized the opposition’s decision to incite people to besiege the legislature, saying it was uncalled for and may lead to violence.