Another thankless speech

Once again, the legislature's motion of thanks for the chief executive's policy address has been defeated, for the seventh time in nine years. The motion is a courtesy gesture that was routinely passed for almost the entire century and a half of British colonial rule. But it has become mired in political dispute ever since Hong Kong's birth as a special administrative region.

Before the handover, the motion of thanks was always approved - except for the final policy address by Chris Patten, the last British governor, which was defeated by one vote.

As it was, that motion had been amended so that it delivered a reprimand in addition to offering thanks. As amended, it read: 'That this council thanks the governor for his policy address, but since the British government has all along been adopting colonial governance as well as refusing to pursue full democratisation in the territory, thereby unreasonably depriving the people of Hong Kong of their democratic rights, this council expresses deep regret.'

That was apparently the first time in Hong Kong history that a motion of thanks had been amended. But trying to amend it is now the norm.

This year, Lee Cheuk-yan of the Confederation of Trade Unions moved an amendment by adding that the council '...expresses deep regret at the government's refusal to legislate for a minimum wage at this stage'. Another legislator, Albert Chan Wai-yip, moved another amendment expressing disappointment with the policy address.

The fact that both amendments were defeated, as was the motion of thanks itself, reflects the gridlock in the legislature. Mr Chan now proposes that the annual debate on a motion of thanks be scrapped as a 'colonial remnant'.

All lawmakers were appointed throughout most of the colonial era. The motion of thanks was a convention that did not necessarily indicate agreement with the policy address. It was nothing more than a simple courtesy to thank the governor for delivering his policy address.