Demand for ousted lawmakers to return payments is political persecution, and Hongkongers won’t stand for it

The decision by the Legislative Council Commission to seek refunds from four disqualified Legco members scores a rare triple whammy: it is morally reprehensible, legally doubtful and potentially a spectacular political own goal.

Legco president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen confirmed that reimbursement of salaries and allowances would be retroactive to October 1 last year. However, there would be no similar effort to retroactively undo what they had done as members.

It is worth reminding ourselves how we arrived at the present situation. In fairness, it should be remembered that it began when the four members in question – Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai and Edward Yiu Chung-yim – took their oaths of office in a variety of silly ways – long pauses between words, suddenly going falsetto, etc – instead of in a solemn, serious manner. They used the ceremony to make a political gesture. The president accepted their oaths at the time, deeming it better to get on with public business than make martyrs out of them. But this was insufficient for others, including government officials, who took it upon themselves to challenge the validity of the oaths in court. The legal outcome was inevitable, as there was already relevant case law in Hong Kong to ensure disqualification.