Key post in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council not for me, Regina Ip says
Blow for pro-establishment camp as New People’s Party chairwoman spurns offer to succeed Jasper Tsang
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee has snubbed invitations to be president of the Legislative Council and says it is too early to consider running for the city’s top job.
Veterans in the pro-establishment camp are trying to lobby Ip, who won more than 60,000 votes in the Legco elections on Sunday, to lead the legislature instead of joining a race that some say she has little chance of winning.
Ip declined to say if she was mulling the job of chief executive. Instead she said being Legco president was not the kind of job she wanted. “I do not prefer [handling] procedural matters,” Ip said. “I want to focus on policy agendas.”
Apart from presiding over council meetings, the president can also decide on the agenda and time of meetings and call special sessions during recesses. But under customary rules, the president does not have a vote unless he or she vacates the position.
The outgoing president, Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, was popular for his willingness to engage pan-democrats. But he was criticised for being too soft on the filibustering tactics lawmakers used to block government proposals.
If Ip rejects the offer to succeed Tsang, pro-establishment veterans say they would have to opt for a less ideal second choice – Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen.
Their problem with Leung is that the industrial sector lawmaker took the functional constituency seat without an election. Pan-democrats and critics at large have consistently condemned the trade-based lawmakers as an undemocratic representation of Hong Kong’s political system.
“Leung is not an ideal candidate. A lawmaker who is not chosen from a direct election should not become Legco president,” Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said.
A source in the pro-establishment camp admitted that many heavyweights in the bloc planned to lobby Ip to take the post.
“They will tell Ip frankly that she will not have a chance in entering the chief executive race, so she would be better off taking up the Legco presidency,” the source said.
While Ip would not say when she would confirm whether to run for the top job, she called on incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to clarify his re-election plan “as soon as possible”.
She also admitted telling a lie this week when she denied having visited Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong hours after voting for the Legco elections finished on Sunday.
“I was requested by the other party to keep the meeting confidential,” Ip said. “But later I didn’t feel well for having misled the public.”
She said they discussed a wide range of issues but she would not confirm whether the liaison office was also lobbying her to become Legco president.
In distancing herself from the job, Ip supported Andrew Leung in becoming the Legco chief, saying he was strong enough to deal with filibustering lawmakers.
She also said it would be good to consider a woman, such as, Starry Lee Wai-king, who leads the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the city’s biggest pro-Beijing party, a view shared by Liberal Party chairman Felix Chung Kwok-pan.
