The Legislative Council (Legco) yesterday passed a motion thanking Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor for her maiden Policy Address.This is something worth citizen's support and celebration.
The passage of the motion of thanks at the first glance seems just a procedural or ceremonial affair, with lawmakers simply pressing a button and clapping hands to show a little bit of goodwill.Even if the motion were not passed and no thanks expressed, the Chief Executive (CE) will still continue her governance based on her governing ideals and her Policy Address, not that she won't be able to do her work.However, in view of the executive-legislative relationship and of the general political atmosphere in society, there is no way to say it is a positive and delightful thing that, like in each of the past nine years, a motion to thank the CE for the Policy Address could not be passed with the opposition lawmakers declining to even give a small "like".
This year, no doubt, the passage of the motion to thank Carrie Lam for her first Policy Address accords with the general trend and is the order of the day. First of all, after the court verdicts to disqualify some lawmakers, the opposition has six seats less in seats in Legco, so the pro-establishment camp holds majority votes in both Functional Constituencies (FC) and Geographical Constituencies (GC).There is no way for the opposition to "fight their way out".Nevertheless, the passage of the motion of thanks with a great majority of votes is not just a question concerning the number of seats let alone a result of "taking advantage of others' predicament", but accords with the general trend in the current social atmosphere and mainstream public opinion.
As a matter of fact, Carrie Lam since taking her office adheres to her governance style of being down-to-earth, with firm resolve to succeed and having the courage to bring forth new ideas, and is decisive and suits her actions to her words in many aspects. For instance, she proactively promotes the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and participation in the Belt and Road, vigorously supports the development of inno-tech and creative industries. She increases government expedite on education by $5 billion, boldly launches "Starter Homes" for qualified local first-time homebuyers and regularises the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme.In addition, there are new measures and policies concerning young people, including the Pilot Member Self-recommendation Scheme for Youth and recruitment of young people for the restructured Central Policy Unit that were underway while the motion of thanks was being deliberated at Legco. All such are visible, tangible and down-to-earth relief measures to benefit the people, embodying the ideas of governing for the people and for improving the people's well-being. Therefore, they are indeed welcomed and supported by citizens.
Under such circumstances, had the Legco failed to pass the motion of thanks, the "losers" were not Carrie Lam but the opposition lawmakers who cast the votes against it. Not supporting the Policy Address is equivalent to not supporting economic development and improving people's livelihood and not supporting handling concrete affairs in a down-to-earth matter and reducing agonism. In this way, they will inevitably lose votes in future elections. Some opposition lawmakers yesterday chose to cast votes for the motion, to abstain from voting or to be absent. They put down the butcher knife not because they wanted to show mercy but after some careful calculation.
Surely, the tough battle over the motion thanking the CE for her Policy Address has been won. But this does not mean everything is fine from now on. Struggles between supporting and opposing the establishment and between supporting the Legco's normal function and making trouble in the legislature will still be very intensive. A point of focus will be on the revision of the Legco's Rules of Procedure.
Revising the Rules of Procedure is aimed at preventing rampant filibustering and frequent "head counting", at ensuring the efficiency of the work of the legislature and ensuring the executive-legislative relationship to return to the right track laid down by the Basic Law. This struggle is much much more difficult than the passage of the motion of thanks. Right now, the opposition insists on not discussing the revision until the reelection in coming March to fill the six vacant seats in the hope of gaining more seats to turn the table. Pro-establishment lawmakers must remain sober-minded, never wavering or yielding.
11 November 2017
