The legislative year will open on Wednesday with the customary policy address by the chief executive. However, this year, legislators will have more on their minds than what Donald Tsang Yam-kuen will have to say.
In fact, there is the possibility of a constitutional crisis as some legislators threaten to vote to repeal the government's proposal to carve out five hectares from the Clear Water Bay Country Park and turn it into part of an enlarged Tseung Kwan O landfill which, the government says, will be full 'around 2013-14'. The plan is to enlarge the landfill by 50 hectares, 10 per cent of which will come from the country park.
By and large, Legislative Council members understand the problems of disposing of municipal waste. But because of complaints by residents of Tseung Kwan O, they want to be sure that the serious odour problem is fixed before they agree to the country park deal.
The government is saying that any resolution to repeal the chief executive's decision, even if it was passed, would have no legal effect. But Legco's legal adviser believes that the legislature does, indeed, have the legal authority to repeal the chief executive's decision.
Thus, there is the possibility that the National People's Congress Standing Committee may step in with an interpretation of the Basic Law.
The government is urging Legco president Tsang Yok-sing not to permit the vote on the grounds that such a resolution would be unlawful. But one legislator, Albert Chan Wai-yip of the League of Social Democrats, has already vowed to seek a judicial review if the vote is not allowed. So a legal battle may well be in the offing, unless, of course, the vote for repeal goes ahead and is defeated.
The government, advised by former attorney general Michael Thomas, is going so far as to say that nobody, not even the chief executive, can repeal what is essentially subsidiary legislation to the Country Parks Ordinance, originally enacted in 1976 under the colonial administration, when the legislature consisted of only British officials and appointed members, with no elected representatives of the public.