Should they stay or should they go? Pro-democracy camp debates LegCo future before poll
Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers may be able to block plans by Beijing loyalists to further persecute anti-extradition law protesters if they stay on for an extra year in the chamber, advocates said during a forum on Friday.
On the other hand, failure to quit the Legislative Council would amount to endorsing an erosion of Hong Kong’s democratic process that was imposed by Beijing, opponents said.
The forum was organized by Apple Daily and online media Stand News and D100 ahead of an opinion poll set for next Monday that will determine whether pro-democracy lawmakers remain in LegCo for the extra year. Serving legislators from the camp have agreed to base their decision on the poll outcome.
Civic Party leader Alvin Yeung, Democratic Party’s Lam Cheuk-ting and League of Social Democrats' Jimmy Shum argued that boycotting the chamber would only leave Beijing loyalists free to target anti-extradition law protesters unopposed.
“The regime will use different methods to persecute [the protesters] and suppress the campaign,” Shum said.
A proposal by pro-Beijing legislator Priscilla Leung to invoke special powers to investigate the funding of and supply of materials to protesters has been included in the legislative agenda for the coming year.
Lawmakers who remain in the chamber will likely be ineffective in the face of new powers now wielded by the government and police, said localist and district councillor Fergus Leung. Hongkongers had to find other ways to build democracy rather than relying on LegCo seats, he said.
Staying on for the extra year would also mean that the pro-democracy camp had caved in to Beijing’s interference, which would make it harder to push for the resumption of normal elections, former student leader and now district councillor Lester Shum argued.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam in late July cited the health risks posed by COVID-19 when she postponed elections due in September to select the city’s 70 legislators for the next four-year term. In August, the standing committee of China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, decided to extend the term of Hong Kong legislators by at least one year.
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