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Thursday, October 26, 2017, 00:07
Opposition tactics blocking XRL debate disappoint Lam
By He Shusi and Luis Liu
Thursday, October 26, 2017, 00:07 By He Shusi and Luis Liu

Residents rally outside the Legislative Council in Admiralty on Wednesday in support of the co-location arrangement for the Express Rail Link. (Parker Zheng / China Daily)

HONG KONG – Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng yuet-ngor expressed disappointment on Wednesday over opposition lawmakers’ latest filibustering tactics which prevent the government from moving a motion on the joint-checkpoint plan at Hong Kong’s high-speed rail terminus. 

Lam said such stunts were “foreseeable” and suggested the “pan-democrats” should return to pragmatism.

The government never thought it would have an easy pass in LegCo on the plan to co-locate Hong Kong and mainland custom and immigration controls at the West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL), she admitted.

But the CE said she was still disappointed as lawmakers filibustered on bills in the first and second reading to block co-location discussions.

“This conduct has proven that the government’s previous moves to postpone another amendment bill on stamp duties was reasonable, otherwise more filibustering would happen,” Lam said.

She believes the public will make its own judgments on the lawmakers’ behavior – particularly when they used loopholes in LegCo’s Rules of Procedure.

Until the end of the LegCo meeting at 7:50 pm, almost nine hours after it began, the planned discussion on the motion had not even started. This was after localist lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick moved a motion to start a comprehensive deliberation on a banking regulation bill. This usually goes to a specific panel for further discussion at this stage.

Chu activated rule 54(4), which has never been used in LegCo since 1998.  

Legco President Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen said Rules of Procedure meant he had no choice but to allow Chu’s rare move. But Leung only let each lawmaker speak for a maximum of 15 minutes on the banking bill.

The opposition lawmakers also called nine quorums – wasting about two hours of meeting time.

Pro-establishment lawmakers voiced antipathy over the situation. Starry Lee Wai-king, legislator and chairwoman of the city’s biggest party – the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong – agreed that the “pan-democratic” lawmakers took advantage of loopholes in the Rules of Procedure.

She said only with the co-location plan could the XRL offer Hong Kong the most benefits.

“The high-speed rail in Hong Kong is a livelihood issue rather than a political one,” Lee said.  

Fighting against co-location was going against people’s well-being and against anything which could help integrate Hong Kong with mainland, she added.

Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions legislator Jonathan Ho Kai-ming said “pan-democrats” turned their backs on an infrastructure program which could benefit people’s livelihoods.

“I hope they could listen to what people actually want and don’t politicalize the motion and turn the high speed rail into a ‘slow’ one,” he said. “The lawmakers should speak for the people. If they keep filibustering, aren’t they letting down the people in Hong Kong?”

Before the meeting, about 200 demonstrators from social concern groups including the DAB, FTU, the Voice of Loving Hong Kong and the Treasure Group gathered outside LegCo to show support for the co-location plan. They urged the opposition to abandon their radical approach.

To complete procedures to implement the co-location plan by the rail link’s scheduled launch date in third quarter of next year, the government decided to prioritize the co-location motion. This would trigger discussions from the public and legislature on the plan and seek their support before initiating official procedures.

The government on July 25 said one-fourth of the West Kowloon Station would be designated as a Mainland Port Area governed by national laws to increase efficiency.

Once the XRL’s Hong Kong section is in use, the city will join the country’s high-speed rail network. Travel time to mainland cities will be slashed: It would take just 14 minutes to arrive in Shenzhen and 48 minutes to reach Guangzhou.

hesushi@chinadailyhk.com

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