Pro-establishment lawmakers should let sleeping dogs lie
The decision to demand disqualified legislators repay millions in salaries and allowances will only serve to open up a legal can of worms
The legislature, led by government-friendly lawmakers, is demanding repayment of HK$2.7 million to HK$3.1 million in salaries, allowances and expenses from four disqualified opposition legislators.
It may be overreaching, and is opening itself to serious legal challenges from the four – “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Lau Siu-lai and Edward Yiu Chung-yim.
Even loyalist lawmaker Holden Chow Ho-ding, vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, has admitted the Legco decision is based on shaky legal ground. “In terms of fairness, the court may well look on it differently … meaning Legco risks losing in court,” he told TVB News.
The loyalist bloc wants it both ways. It wants to claw back as much money as possible from the four. But it insists that all the in-house work and voting records of the four up to the court decision to disqualify them in July are valid.
Understandably, neither the bloc nor the government, perhaps even the opposition, wants to go back to re-examining and voting again on all the bills and meetings in which the four had taken part. They could face a legislative minefield as there are no precedents.