Officials must get their guts up to contend with a inferiorizing legislature
In an interview with Ta Kung Pao yesterday, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said that in the current Legislative Council (Legco) filibustering activity ran wild and some lawmakers ignored facts, preceded with slogans and hurled insults whenever they opened their mouths. In her view, it is time to stop such "inferiorization" of the legislature from spreading.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam also revealed that there were at least 18 more bills awaiting for deliberation in Legco, apart from the Copyright (Amendment) Bill and the Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill that were being considered and the new Budget to be unveiled. But there are only some six months left before the current Legco concludes its session. She felt deeply worried whether all the bills could be passed in time.
Carrie Lam is an official who takes everything to heart. It is impossible for her not to become concerned and indignant with the evil trend in Legco that some lawmakers just do filibustering but nothing else and wantonly throw insults at her colleagues and subordinates. She cried out against unfairness during an earlier Legco discussion on the "lead-contaminated water" incident when some departmental officials were pressured into drinking "lead-contaminated water" in public, saying she was not afraid of criticism as "an official gets the guts up who longs for nothing more". Such "guts" have nothing to do with personal honour or humiliation, gain or loss, but come from the righteousness and commitment to safeguarding the governance of the SAR Government in accordance with the law and the overall interests of citizens. She has set an example for other SAR Government officials to follow.
At the same time when Chief Secretary Carrie Lam expressed her worry about the administration getting bogged down in the filibustering activity at Legco, Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung and Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So Kam-leung were yesterday making tireless efforts?and "exerting for a final spurt" at Legco and a radio station respectively in hopes for getting a bill passed and funding application approved before the conclusion of current Legco session. The situations facing them are exactly like what Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said.
Secretary for Transport and Housing Antony Cheung's application to Legco for $18 billion extra funding for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link project could be said to have run into a predicament of "making bricks without straw". If the funding application could not be passed by end of February and funds could not be dispatched in March, construction of the express rail project may have to be suspended. Once construction is suspended, just for the security and maintenance of construction sites and equipment it would cost over $10 million per day. Resumption of construction or re-tendering would also cost dearly.
Despite the urgency of the matter, Albert Chan Wai Yip, Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, "Long Hair" and their ilk still regard economic development, public interests and public spending as nothing, going on with their endless filibustering. At a discussion of Legco's Public Works Subcommittee the day before yesterday, they still stuck like a limpet to the issue of co-locating immigration and customs facilities. As a result, the meeting had to be aborted for lack of a quorum for the third time.
Because of this, some people ask: Could Anthony Cheung simply bypass the Public Works Subcommittee and directly send the funding application to the Legco's Finance Committee or even a Council Meeting to "crash through a barrier"?
On this, Secretary Antony Cheung yesterday said: "At this stage we should still respect the discussion at the Public Works Subcommittee."
Surely, executive-led is not equal to "executive-dominant", so it must not talk casually and lightly about "bypassing" [a Legco subcommittee] to "crash through a barrier". Nevertheless, the fact before our eyes is that the application for extra funding application for the express rail project has been in discussion at the Public Works Subcommittee for nearly two months, which means the filibustering has been going on for nearly two months, and the subcommittee meeting for this purpose has been aborted for lack of a quorum three times. Moreover, if the situation continues, there will only be continuous "filibustering" and more "abortions of meeting", as "Long Hair" and his ilk will never "lay down their butcher's knives".
In face of such a predicament, in order for the express rail project not to fall into impasse, in order to save taxpayers' money and safeguard the public interests, Secretary Antony Cheung should also get his guts up to bypass the Public Work Subcommittee and send the funding application directly to the Finance Committee for consideration and approval. According to Legco's Rules of Procedure, the funding application has been held up at the Public Work Subcommittee for two months and so far no silver lining is seen for a possible solution. Hence, for public interests, there is no reason to wait forever. If Antony Cheung could take such a drastic move to deal with the matter, he believably will win support from other lawmakers.
Likewise, deliberation of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill at Legco has also already run into a dead end, as the opposition won't give up until they kill the bill. To satisfy the needs of concerned industries and serve public interests, Secretary Gregory So should also get his guts up to seek support to make some breakthrough in procedure.
21 January 2016
