My Take | Legco’s a joke, but it’s no laughing matter
Hong Kong people are the big losers as childish, tit-for-tat behaviour in the Legislative Council continues with no adult in sight
The government failed to obtain a court injunction to bar the localist Youngspiration pair from retaking their oaths. So the pro-establishment lawmakers did its dirty work yesterday by walking out of the Legislative Council chamber, thereby halting the meeting because of the insufficient quorum.
The pan-democrats feigned outrage at the mass walkout, never mind that it has been one of their favourite delaying tactics against the government. They were getting a dose of their own medicine.
But the pro-establishment camp did not come out any better. Its members have long professed disgust at such tactics, yet did it anyway at the start of the new legislature.
The High Court ruled there was no urgency in granting a temporary injunction, though it has agreed to take up the government’s judicial review to disqualify Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching from becoming legislators. Shouldn’t the government-friendly lawmakers have waited for the legal challenge to take its course?
In staging the walkout and sabotaging the oath-taking session, the pro-establishment lawmakers showed contempt for the court as well as for new Legco president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen.