Alex Lo

My Take | Follow the rules or step down from Exco

Not for the first time, Tommy Cheung has broken with tradition by opposing decisions made by the government

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Lawmaker Tommy Cheung Yu-yan speaks to the press at the Legislative Council Complex in March. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Alex Lo

Published: 9:00pm, 13 Sep 2020Updated: 10:22pm, 13 Sep 2020

Lawmakers are there to take on the government. Executive councillors are expected to defend its policies. Those who hold positions in both councils sometimes find themselves conflicted about their responsibilities. Still, Exco’s collective responsibility rule is generally seen as their higher duty to uphold.

The latest, though, is not the first time Exco member Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, who represents the catering sector in the legislature, has been accused of breaching the rule.

The government has just relaxed social-distancing rules by allowing up to four people to eat at the same table in a restaurant. But bars, karaokes and nightclubs remain closed. Cheung was upset about their continuing ban. He has not only dismissed it as unreasonable, but also used rather unkind words, without naming names, to describe “those doctors and officials” behind the decision as not knowing what that they are talking about. The government will reportedly allow bars to reopen from as early as Friday.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, has defended the decision, saying allowing patrons to alternately take on and off their face masks at those premises is even more dangerous.

Health minister Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee has promised to extend the new relaxed rules to those social clubs as well if the pandemic front improves further in the days and weeks ahead.

It’s probably those two senior officials Cheung had in mind, besides others. His outburst has offended some civil servants, including a former one, Lam Chiu-ying, the ex-director of the Observatory.