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Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing
Opinion
Alice Wu
Alice Wu

How Legco president got us safely through budget filibuster

Alice Wu praises the Legco president for deftly guiding proceedings to allow the marathon budget filibuster yet limit its disruptions

We see so much bad politics that it sometimes takes a while to recognise the good bits. We're conditioned, daily, to look for the bad and the ugly in the news headlines.

Some are easy to spot. Take, for instance, former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's "friend-or-foe" governance approach. That has to be one of the worst. He somehow saw partisanship as an answer to the "political, economic and social extremes" that he felt were detrimental to the city.

What he did, in fact, was exacerbate matters. In the absence of a popular mandate for the chief executive, who furthermore is required to have no party affiliation, it was a political disaster. Tsang ended up with "friends" who didn't help and "foes" who were more than happy to play their part.

In his attempt to adapt to an office with no built-in political support, Tsang gave himself more enemies than friends, and advanced division instead of discussion.

Hong Kong's first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, could blame his bad luck. First, there was the Asian financial crisis, followed by the property crash and the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak - no political leader would wish any of these on himself. A combination of many things probably did him in, in the end. This included bad timing: his rush to roll out Article 23 legislation without taking the public pulse was a classic example of bad politics. Unfortunately for Hong Kong, it turned the existing political culture of mistrust into one of distrust.

Still, if we look hard enough, there is sometimes good politics at work. Take the recent end to the 130-hour budget filibuster that didn't make life any worse for ordinary Hong Kong people. For better or worse, things worked out, without having to ban a parliamentary device that has been used since ancient Rome.

No matter which side of the filibuster divide one is on, it is good politics when everyone gets to say their piece. Those who wanted to turn the debate into a marathon were able to do so. Those who condemned it were able to condemn it for 130 hours.

While Jasper Tsang Yok-sing's comment about having "Stockholm syndrome" added a bit of humour, let's not forget to credit the Legislative Council president for pulling this off. Tsang may have praised the filibuster trio for their political stamina - for their attempts to delay voting even though they knew full well that, "politically and realistically", they would not achieve anything - but he dealt well with the political realities. Even in such circumstances, Tsang was able to keep the chamber working in concert, after a fashion.

He didn't take away the members' power to extend debate or their right to be outraged by the debate, and neither did he let the delay cripple government services.

That feat takes someone who knows well the limitations of his office, and who understands the intricacies of politics.

Political scientist David Runciman is right: politics matters; it has the power to exacerbate and amplify problems, or the power to moderate them.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Cool head
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