Lawmaker Timothy Fok Tsun-ting has remained bottom of the attendance record at Legislative Council meetings for the third year running, while Chim Pui-chung has continued to raise no questions.
It may come as little surprise to their functional constituents that Daniel Lam Wai-keung had an attendance of below 50 per cent on six bills committees and two panels this legislative term and that Sophie Leung Lau Yau-fun attended less than half the meetings of two bills committees and three panels of which she was a member. But people in New Territories East may want to know why 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung never appeared at three bills committees of which he was a member.
The figures are from the Legco 2007-08 attendance statistics up to July 3, two weeks before the summer recess, with the cut-off date for council meeting records in mid-June and those for bills committees and panels from late May to mid-June.
Only 19 of the 60 lawmakers attended all council meetings, while four had attendance rates below 90 per cent. Mr Fok attended 79 per cent of council meetings, followed by Mrs Leung on 85 per cent. Both Anson Chan Fang On-sang and Raymond Ho Chung-tai attended 88 per cent of council meetings.
Mr Fok, the sports, performing arts, culture and publication sector lawmaker and Sports Federation and Olympics Committee president, attended less than 30 per cent of three bills committees in which he had registered to take part.
He said he could not attend so many meetings because he was often out of town for international and national sports conferences, and had been particularly busy this year in preparations for the Beijing Olympics. 'I am going to review this,' he said, adding that he would seek re-election in September.
Mrs Leung, the Liberal Party member representing the textiles and garment functional constituency, said there had often been clashes between Legco meetings and factory visits arranged for the profession, and she had opted to attend the latter. 'You need to do pragmatic things, not just sitting there as a backdrop of the conference room.'