Leung has been freezing us out, Democrats say
Democratic Party lawmakers yesterday accused Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying of keeping them in the dark about his policy plans and said his actions undercut his pledge to be politically inclusive.
Legislators complained that only a handful of Leung's ministers had sat down with the party's representatives to discuss their programmes since taking office on July 1. They said it showed that Leung did not appreciate the Legislative Council's role in crafting policy.
'Leung Chun-ying should realise that the Legco is one of his important partners,' party vice-chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said at a news conference to discuss the recently concluded legislative session.
'Since he took office, he has often reached out to the community and was repeatedly surrounded and criticised by protesters,' she said. 'But he has not yet had a meeting with us.'
So far, Lau said only Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, Transport and Housing Secretary Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung and Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing had met Democratic Party lawmakers as a group, although Education Secretary Eddie Ng Hak-kim did meet Democrat Cheung Man-kwong in private.
'If they ask for our opinions, we can help review and polish their planned policy initiatives, so as to avoid possible controversy,' said legislator James To Kun-sun, the party's deputy caucus convenor.
To said the lack of dialogue had called into question Leung's promise to represent only 'the Hong Kong camp' after his win over former chief secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen and the Democratic Party's chairman, Albert Ho Chun-yan. 'It shows that there is no 'Hong Kong camp', but only Leung's camp,' To said.
Democrats supported 71 out of the 72 funding requests submitted by the government during the 2011-12 legislative session.
In December, the party's lawmakers joined some Beijing-loyalist legislators in opposing the recurrent grant schedule for University Grants Committee-funded institutions between this year and 2015.
The opposition to the grants schedule was based on the Education Bureau's refusal to promise that the institutions would not raise tuition fees.
