Advertisement
Advertisement
Leung Chun-ying (CY Leung)
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Raymond Chan and Albert Chan pledged to block the bureau by filibustering. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Update | Radical pan-dems vow ‘full-scale war’ if CY Leung tries to push through controversial Hong Kong tech bureau

Radical pan-democrat lawmakers today vowed to “launch a full-scale war” after Leung Chun-ying urged the Legco finance committee to hold extra meetings to discuss the controversial Hong Kong tech bureau.

Radical pan-democrat lawmakers today vowed to “launch a full-scale war” after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying urged the Legislative Council’s finance committee to hold extra meetings to scrutinise the controversial HK$39 million funding request for his brainchild, the innovation and technology bureau.

Leung’s demand for five consecutive days of meetings next week before Legco’s summer recess came after he reshuffled the agenda to place 11 funding requests for livelihood issues ahead of the long-promised bureau last month in the wake of the failure of political reform.

But People Power lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen dropped a strong hint his group would filibuster if extra meetings were added, indicating he would reverse an earlier pledge not to delay the approval of non-contentious funding requests that will address the city’s livelihood issues in the finance committee.

“If meetings are added, everything that was said earlier would be [invalidated, and we will] launch a full-scale war! We will ask questions, table motions to adjourn the meeting and the debate, and [other] motions,” Chan wrote on Facebook.

Chan’s People Power colleague Albert Chan Wai-yip agreed, adding: “[We] don’t want the tech bureau proposal to be discussed and approved [this month] and if there is any procedural change, we will launch a full-scale war,” adding that extra meetings would do little to help the approval of the funding.

Leung Chun-ying pledged in his 2012 manifesto to establish the innovation and technology bureau. Photo: Sam Tsang

Last Friday, the finance committee quickly approved six items worth HK$6.6 billion, including one-off sweeteners promised this year’s budget speech. But some pro-democracy lawmakers apparently delayed the house committee, which took place before the finance committee, and forced the latter to kill one of its extra scheduled meetings.

“Society has shared a thought – there is still filibustering in Legco even though the SAR government has placed the items concerning livelihood issues ahead. Progress [in the legislature] is slower than normal,” Leung said before the weekly Executive Council meeting today.

Leung said he would ask the chairman of the finance committee, the Liberal Party’s Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, to hold extra meetings from July 14 to 18 to scrutinise the remaining items – including the bureau – “in a normal way”.

Cheung however said he would first consult his colleagues’ preferences before deciding whether to hold extra meetings.

But he noted that a certain number of his colleagues would be out of town as Legco’s summer recess approached.

He said the government had sought his opinion on the matter before but he did not know when it wanted the extra sessions to be held.

Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-yan blasted Leung for “adding meetings violently” to have his brainchild approved as soon as possible.

“We thought Leung had hoped to put aside the struggle and place livelihood issues first,” he said. “But it turns out he still wants this struggle game to go on.”

Leung had previously come under fire for asking lawmakers to hold extra meetings to study the funding request of the bureau, which was at the top of the agenda before the Beijing-friendly lawmakers’ bungled walkout on the reform package.

Even Executive Council and Legco member Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee had said the government should table the funding request in October and not push it in haste.

Leung later announced he would reshuffle the agenda in an effort to build a healthy relationship with lawmakers.

Today Ip told the : “The chief executive has consulted us [on his suggestion], so [NPP vice-chairman Michael Tien Puk-sun] and I will stay in Hong Kong that week and try our best to support him.”

The government is asking for approval for HK$39 million to set up the IT bureau, which Leung promised in his 2012 election manifesto.

However, it has made little progress in Legco and been the subject of filibustering by pan-democrat lawmakers who argue its establishment would allow Leung to appoint more of his supporters to key government positions.

Post