It's time to engage, Liberals tell CY

The Liberal Party yesterday told Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to engage with pan-democrats and consider reopening a forecourt outside the government headquarters in Admiralty in exchange for students cutting back protest zones.

James Tien Pei-chun, who quit as party leader after the nation's political advisory body expelled him last week for asking Leung to consider resigning, also said pan-democrats' "non-cooperation campaign" would block the passage of many bills.

Pan-democrats have a majority of seats on the Legislative Council's Finance Committee and vowed to vote down most government funding requests in protest at Beijing's strict framework for the 2017 chief executive poll.

"I suggested that the chief executive and officials engage with pan-democratic parties and lawmakers, otherwise Hong Kong people will be hurt by the 'non-cooperation campaign' eventually," Tien said after he and four other lawmakers met Leung to submit proposals for the upcoming policy address.

Tien also told Leung to try to resolve the divide between Occupy supporters and opponents. But Tien said he did not raise the idea of Leung resigning, which led to his expulsion from the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Liberal lawmaker Felix Chung Kwok-pan said that from contacts with student bodies, he noted protesters would consider cutting the protest zones if the government would reopen the forecourt at the eastern entrance of its headquarters. Known as Civic Square, the area had been a popular protest zone, and an incursion by students who had been staging a class boycott helped kick off the Occupy protests.