‘Bad boys’ or good lawmakers? A look at the year’s first fiery exchanges between Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and new legislators

The inaugural session of the revamped Legislative Council was marked by a tense back and forth between a number of lawmakers and the leader

Analysts say the lawmakers were intent on proving to Beijing and the public they are willing to be tough on the executive branch

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Lawmaker Chan Han-pan (centre) takes a photo after the question and answer session at the Legislative Council on Wednesday. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 8:00am, 13 Jan 2022Updated: 8:41am, 13 Jan 2022

Several Beijing loyalists adopted an adversarial stance as self-styled “bad boys” daring to hold the government accountable at the inaugural meeting of the new legislative term in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Analysts said the legislators, newly elected under Beijing’s “patriots-only” electoral overhaul, were keen to prove to the central government and residents that they were willing to challenge Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor at a time of mounting dissatisfaction with government performance.

The pro-establishment bloc has a near complete lock on the expanded 90-member Legislative Council, after a sole centrist was returned last month and the opposition camp steered clear of a poll that they argued was aimed at sidelining critics.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam at Legco on Wednesday. Photo: Sam Tsang

During a question and answer session that lasted two hours, a number of lawmakers criticised the government for its anti-pandemic strategy which they said had failed to contain a growing outbreak fuelled by the Omicron variant.

While Chan Hoi-yan, of the new Election Committee constituency, slammed Lam’s approach as riddled with holes, veteran lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun pressed the leader twice for an apology over the government’s quarantine policy of cargo aircrew members, who are at the centre of the emerging fifth Covid-19 wave.

A combative Lam squarely dismissed alternative strategies proposed by Chen to keep the virus in check and even mocked Tien for his “election” slogan.

“I understand and agree with your attitude of ‘not blindly support or blindly oppose’, but you cannot blindly criticise anti-epidemic officials for not performing their job just because of violation of rules by one individual,” she said, in an apparent reference to the Cathay Pacific aircrew members who flouted home isolation rules and brought Omicron into the community.