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Pan-democrats are ready to step up their efforts over Occupy. Photo: EPA

Pan-democrat lawmakers ready to step up after student-government talks stall

Former leader Tung Chee-hwa signs alliance petition calling for halt to protests

Pan-democrat lawmakers are ready to step up their efforts to resolve Hong Kong's political crisis after talks between the government and student leaders last week failed to provide a breakthrough.

This came as former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa signed the Alliance for Peace and Democracy's petition calling for an end to the Occupy protests and backing the police. The alliance said it had collected more than 1.3 million signatures by yesterday. The campaign ends tomorrow.

With no sign of a second round of government-student talks, the city remains mired in a stalemate with protests now in their second month. The Federation of Students has indicated little interest in further dialogue, and the feeling is mutual on the government side.

Pan-democrat lawmakers, who have been playing second fiddle to the students since the occupation began on September 28, now want to step in to discuss an exit plan with the government.

But even if they manage to strike a deal, whether that will be enough to end the amorphous protest movement is unclear.

Alan Leong
Alan Leong Kah-kit, who convenes a weekly gathering of 23 pan-democrat lawmakers, raised the idea of talks with the government on Wednesday when he met Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in the Legislative Council antechamber.

The legislators want to discuss the government proposals raised at the meeting between officials, led by Lam, and student leaders nearly two weeks ago. At the time, Lam said the local government could file a report to the central government to reflect the latest public mood, and to establish a "multiparty platform" to hammer out a path to constitutional development beyond 2017.

The proposals failed to satisfy student leaders, who insisted that Beijing should retract its decision to place tight restrictions on Hong Kong's electoral methods.

Since the pan-democrats would eventually vote in Legco on the government's proposal for how the 2017 chief executive election should work, they were in a position to discuss the issues with Lam, reasoned Leong.

Lam has remained coy about the request for talks.

The camp is pondering the possibility of members resigning from Legco to trigger by-elections they would see as a de facto referendum on electoral reform.

Leong said the camp had not decided whether or how to make such a move. He said there were two ways to trigger a vote. One of the five "super seat" lawmakers, for whom 3.2 million voters would be eligible to vote, could resign, triggering a city-wide election. Or five pan-democrats, one from each of the five geographical constituencies, could resign.

Sin Chung-kai of the Democratic Party, which holds two "super seats", said his party preferred the second option because there was no certainty of pan-democrats holding on to a "super seat" in a by-election and because the second option could involve more parties.

Leong said the by-elections would have to be held before Legco voted on electoral reform.

He also said the pan-democratic camp would not attend government consultations on the policy address and budget.

Regarding pan-democrats' call for a meeting with the chief secretary, a government source said it would "welcome dialogue with various sectors including lawmakers".

"However, it was the Federation of Students who [first] sought a dialogue with the government. We will wait and see if pan-democrats are really interested in engaging us," the source said. "We will also need to assess what can be achieved by talking with the pan-democrats."

Dr Chan Kin-man, an Occupy co-founder, said: "Officials may question the value of holding talks with the pan-democrats as [lawmakers] may not be able to persuade protesters to go home. Pan-democrats are worried about being accused by protesters of hijacking the movement if they take the lead in talks with the government."

However, Alex Chow Yong-kang, the federation's secretary general, urged pan-democrat lawmakers to take up a role in talks with the government.

Without a clearly defined and unified leadership, the protest movement is driven largely by two student groups - the federation and Scholarism. The three co-founders of Occupy Central play a secondary role.

Over the past weeks, leaders of the two student groups have held frequent meetings with pan-democrat lawmakers, Occupy Central founders and civil groups.

Chan said if pan-democratic lawmakers could play a more prominent role, it would help resolve the stalemate over political reform.

Occupy leaders earlier proposed holding an electronic vote at the three protest sites. But the idea, announced on Thursday last week, met with a lukewarm response from protesters and the plan was scrapped.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Democrats seek role to end Occupy impasse
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