Filibuster mastermind seeks Hong Kong Legislative Council seat to force the government’s hand

Raphael Wong Ho-ming’s baby face obscures the hard fact that he is the mastermind of the filibusters in the Legislative Council over the years by helping his party colleague, “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, generate thousands of amendments against bills they planned to block.

Now the 27-year-old vice-chairman of the League of Social Democrats (LSD) wants to join the ranks of the filibustering team should he succeed in entering the Legislative Council in the September elections.

“If all pro-democracy lawmakers are willing to join a full-scale filibuster to fight for a universal pension scheme in the coming four years and achieve it, I am sure Hongkongers will never forget us,” Wong told the Post.

In the fifth Legco term which ended last week, a record 220 hours were spent on quorum calls, regarded as a delaying tactic adopted by legislators to stall bills.

But Wong denied his allies were filibustering just for the sake of it.

Pan-democrats could not block a bill if it was put to a vote because Beijing loyalists outnumbered them in the council, he said, and it was never enough to vote against it just “for the record”.