Opinion | When Hong Kong’s pan-democrat lawmakers resort to pranks, the joke is on Hong Kong

Name: Hong Kong lawmaker throws container of rotten plants in protest of controversial national anthem law
Uploaded: 2020-06-07T22:15:18.000Z
Duration: 1 min 33 s
Description: Hong Kong lawmaker throws container of rotten plants in protest of controversial national anthem law

Legislators who pull stunts during debates are part of the political problem. The ineffective and hypocritical opposition must share the blame for the city’s dysfunctional politics

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Democratic Party legislator Ted Hui is intercepted by Legco security guards as he drops a bag holding a container of foul-smelling rotten plants during the second day of the debate on the national anthem law at the Legislative Council in Tamar on May 28. Photo: Nora Tam

Alice Wu

Published: 6:15am, 8 Jun 2020Updated: 7:04am, 8 Jun 2020

Another week, another round of stink bombs in the Legislative Council. There seems to be nothing but repeats at Tamar, but in case you were wondering, here is a quick recap of the debate on the national anthem bill: in a bid to stall the second reading of the bill on May 28, lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung hurled what he said was a container of rotten plants towards the podium of the Legco president, and stank out the chamber.

At the final debate one week later, not only did Hui pull the same stupefying stunt again, he also apparently inspired two other pan-democrats, Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, to disrupt the proceedings with a foul-smelling concoction of their own. But the bill outlawing disrespect of the national anthem was put to vote anyway.

Our legislators are not to be mistaken for Shakespearean fools. Their clowning provided no comic relief, nor did they speak truth to power. They simply elected to be unadulterated fools and then tried to pass that nonsense off as protest. Let the stench of their monkey-see-monkey-do behaviour hang over them.

They are indulging in stupid pranks even though they are way past the age for such childishness. Hui had already set himself apart in 2018 when he snatched a female civil servant’s phone, accessed its contents in the men’s room and forwarded files to his own email account. He was subsequently convicted of three charges of common assault, obtaining access to a computer with dishonest intent and obstructing a public officer.

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Hong Kong lawmaker throws container of rotten plants in protest of controversial national anthem law

And since then, there has been a race to the bottom. While we shouldn’t expect much from Hui, who has proven himself politically eccentric and seems unable to outgrow his playground-bully persona, Chu and Chan are more than capable of putting together convincing arguments and contributing to debates in the legislature – and seeing them go down that same route gives reason for pause.

We have surely arrived at that point where we need to seriously consider how sick and tired we are of these pranks, and to come to the realisation that these pranksters are very much part of the political problem in Hong Kong. They are taking us, the people, for fools.

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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Legislators who pull stunts during debates are part of the political problem. The ineffective and hypocritical opposition must share the blame for the city’s dysfunctional politics

Legislators who pull stunts during debates are part of the political problem. The ineffective and hypocritical opposition must share the blame for the city’s dysfunctional politics