17-year tradition of sharing committee chairs between Beijing-loyalist and pan-dem camps ends amid claims that it will damage relations with the government
TONY CHEUNGtony.cheung@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Friday, 09 October, 2015, 10:50pm
UPDATED : Friday, 09 October, 2015, 10:50pm
Legislator Ma Fung-kwok (centre) was elected as vice-chairman of the House Committee in yesterday's Legco vote.Photo: Felix Wong
The pro-establishment camp on Friday monopolised four key posts in the Legislative Council's top committees for the first time in 17 years, as the pan-democrats criticised them for "damaging ties between the executive branch and the legislature".
Since the first post-handover Legco took office in 1998, the chairmanship and vice-chairmanship of its House Committee have gone, respectively, to a pro-establishment and a pan-democratic lawmaker. Since 2004, pan-democrat Emily Lau Wai-hing has been either the chairwoman or vice-chairwoman of the Finance Committee.
However, this tradition ended yesterday as pro-Beijing lawmakers Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen and Chan Kin-por were elected chairmen of the house and finance committees, with their allies Ma Fung-kwok and Chan Kam-lam returned as their respective deputies.
The Finance Committee chairman has the power to decide when and which government funding proposal is to be scrutinised, with his deputy standing in as required.
The House Committee is responsible for setting the agenda of Legco council meetings. Its chairman and his deputy meet the chief secretary every week, and could decide whether to allow police to enter the Legco building in an emergency.
The House Committee vice-chairmanship was held by pan-democrat Ronny Tong Ka-wah, who quit the Civic Party and Legco in the summer.
As lawmakers met yesterday to elect the House Committee's top posts, Democrat Sin Chung-kai's bid for vice-chairmanship was backed by the pro-establishment Liberal Party, but he was defeated 27-32 by Ma in the voting.
In the Finance Committee, insurance representative Chan Kin-por was elected chairman for the first time, while Chan Kam-lam defeated Lau by 33-22.
Tam Yiu-chung, former chairman of the Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, suggested his camp "had no choice" but to contest the vice-chairmanships.
"We asked the pan-democrats if there were candidates who could be supported by the majority, but they said they would [in their words] discuss no more and declared a full-scale war on us," Tam said.
However, Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit insisted: "[The Beijing loyalists] tried to dictate to us who was acceptable to them. … This was a clear decision taken by the pro-establishment camp that we cannot possibly take on."
Sin said ties between Legco and the government were helped with a pan-democrat as House Committee vice-chairman, but now the monopoly would "damage" relations.
One of Chan Kin-por's first challenges will be to handle a debate on a controversial proposal for an innovation and technology bureau, which radical pan-democrats had vowed to block by filibustering.
The two camps will compete for the chairmanships of 18 panels and two subcommittees on Wednesday and Thursday.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1865946/hong-kongs-pro-establishment-camp-snaps-key-posts
