The city’s number two official met with around a dozen opposition lawmakers to discuss smoothing the city’s political divide
OWEN.FUNG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Friday, 18 March, 2016, 2:18pm
Cyd Ho Sau-lan (back left, in red) and other pan-democratic lawmakers in Legco on Wednesday. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Pan-democrats expressed hopes of enhanced communications with the government after meeting on Friday with the city’s second highest official to find ways to make the legislature more efficient.
The call came as opposition lawmakers said the administration had achieved little over a legislative year marked by protracted filibustering and had done little to mend relations between the two sides, such as taking steps only a few months before the summer recess in July.
Since Thursday, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Yuet-ngor was in discussions with lawmakers from across the political divide on how to make Legislative Council business go more smoothly, including a plan to prioritise less controversial items in the chamber’s schedule.
Labour Party lawmaker Cyd Ho Sau-lan, convenor of a weekly meeting of 23 pan-democrats, said after the hour-long meeting with Lam on Friday that such exchanges had come too late.
“This sort of communication should be routine,” said Ho, who was joined by around a dozen opposition lawmakers including Emily Lau Wai-hing, Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu and Charles Mok. “We hope in the future our communication will be concrete and routine.”
Ho added that since most of the remaining items were not controversial, the pan-democrats urged the government to put three additional items on the Legco agenda that they deemed urgent and deserving of attention.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor attending a media event earlier this month. Photo: Edward Wong
One such item was the proposed joint border checkpoint at the high-speed rail project’s West Kowloon Terminus.
The opposition lawmakers demanded a special committee be set up on the issue in which the justice minister would explain the plan in detail.
Dennis Kwok of the Civic Party said pan-democrats had been asking local authorities how they planned to implement the checkpoint.
“But so far they have refused to reveal any details,” said Kwok, who urged the government to boost its transparency. “This is not helpful to the relations between the administration and the legislature.”
Civic Party lawmakers Dennis Kwok and Alvin Yeung Ngok-Kiu (standing) in Legco earlier this month. Photo: Nora Tam
The other two issues the pan-democrats wanted Legco to discuss soon were standard working hours and a universal pension scheme, which Ho said the government had been delaying for some time.
Following the talks, the government re-arranged the Finance Committee’s meeting agenda. It placed two items – including works at a former Kennedy Town incineration plant, which pan-democrats previously said would take more time to debate – at the bottom of the list.
Making the announcement, committee chairman Chan Kin-por called the move “a friendly gesture” from the government.
“I hope this can be a good start,” he said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1926991/too-little-too-late-hong-kong-pan-democrats-react-after
