People want LegCo back on track
The Legislative Council on Wednesday resumed deliberations over proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure. True to their words, opposition lawmakers have been going all-out in delaying the process as long as they could so far, giving the public absolutely no reason to believe they can be persuaded to respect popular wishes on their obsession with filibustering government bills at the expense of Hong Kong society as a whole. That is why the great majority of Hong Kong residents support the pro-establishment lawmakers’ determination to push the proposed rule amendments through by all means necessary and why few people still back the recalcitrant “filibuster addicts”.
As matter of fact, though quite common in Western-style democracies around the world, filibustering has never been popular by consensus because it is meant to please the minority at the expense of the majority, and very often public interest as well, by willfully reducing the legislature’s efficiency. Knowing lawmakers are much better paid and privileged political elites, the average “man in the street” can never trust them to do the right thing unless they see undeniable proof. In Hong Kong’s case, unfortunately, the opposition lawmakers have been able to defy public will for so long only because most of them need not worry about being reelected, not because they have public support.
For example, numerous opinion polls in recent years found far more respondents opposed filibustering than support it; and more people agree the Rules of Procedure need to be changed to curb wanton filibustering of government bills than those who don’t. Many people have been pressing for amending the Rules of Procedure in recent years; while others agreed it was long overdue when proestablishment lawmakers finally tabled amendments to the Rules of Procedure this year.
The opposition LegCo members, for their part, have resisted as best they can, and further alienate themselves from the great majority of Hong Kong society along the way. They even have a handful of followers camping outside the LegCo Complex with them in a show of solidarity but their numbers are nowhere near the thousands who joined mass rallies in support of amending the Rules of Procedure in recent weeks.
At this point some observers believe the opposition lawmakers are in a sense completely “cornered”. Some of them therefore suggested the pro-establishment side should give the beleaguered “pan-democrats” a “dignified” way out. But, let’s face it: It was the opposition lawmakers who put themselves into the present situation and all the proestablishment side and great majority of Hong Kong society want is LegCo back on the right track and performing its duties according to popular desire.