Put an end to filibustering, says outgoing Hong Kong CY Leung in appeal to pan-democrats
City’s legislature has backlog of items to debate before its last session in July
Hong Kong’s outgoing leader Leung Chun-ying appealed to pan-democrats on Thursday to stop their filibustering as the legislature still had a backlog of items to debate, including at least two major funding requests, before it adjourns for the summer break in July.
In his last question-and-answer session at the Legislative Council on Thursday, Leung, concluded his opening speech by directing blame to the pan-democratic camp: “With the opportunities ahead, we shouldn’t keep debating without making decisions. This wastes time.”
“But Legco has been getting ever slower in approving the government’s funding requests in recent years ... I hope all councillors will bear in mind our people’s well-being and speed up their scrutiny,” Leung, whose term will expire this month, said.
After the speech, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung conducted a meeting with 15 pan-democrats, some of whom had vowed to filibuster in upcoming finance committee meetings over the funding application for a HK$31.9 billion mega sports park at the site of the former Kai Tak airport.
Another issue which the opposition camp found problematic was a top-up funding request of HK$847.7 million for the construction of a rail link between Sha Tin and Central.
“We should make the best use of every single minute to process the items laid on the table,” Cheung told media after the hour-long meeting. He added that only 10 out of 50 outstanding items had been endorsed during the public works subcommittee meetings, while only four out of 10 had been passed in the finance committee.