As lawmakers continued their barrage of questions on the technical details and cost of the multibillion-dollar project, the most familiar phrase came from the mouth of the Finance Committee chairwoman: 'Your time is up, please queue up again.'
Yesterday's meeting of the committee began amid concerns that pan-democrats might deliberately try to delay the proceedings. In the end, it was the chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, Tam Yiu-chung, who unwittingly opened up a new debate unrelated to the express railway plan.
After four hours in which lawmakers asked more than 40 questions, even pro-establishment figures said they could not accuse the pan-democrats of raising merely trivial matters. However, as the debate entered the third session with two hours remaining, Tam suggested to chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing to 'draw a line', even if there were lawmakers remaining who wanted to ask questions.
Uttering her trademark sigh, Lau said it was Tam's suggestion itself that was most likely to delay proceedings even further. 'If you continue to debate this issue, more people will put their hands up to argue with you,' Lau said.
On cue, eight hands shot up, leading to a 20-minute discussion about whether a vote had to be taken even if questions remained.
This proved a turning point as lawmakers started to accuse each other of wasting time.
Until then, pan-democrats had mostly been asking questions about whether it was necessary to build the station in West Kowloon given the existing congestion.