Oblivious to public outrage, opposition lawmakers led by Civic Party’s Dennis Kwok Wing-hang managed to foil the Legislative Council House Committee’s latest attempt to elect a new chairperson on Friday.

The selection of a new chairperson typically takes less than 30 minutes in its very first meeting. Yet, mired in a paralysis deliberately perpetuated by Kwok and his crew, the committee has wasted more than 20 meeting hours in over six months without deciding on who will lead it. The delay, a Guinness World Record for any parliamentary committee to select its chairperson, must have appalled people around the world

By deliberately preventing the committee again from selecting a chairperson with filibustering tactics in its latest meeting, the 16th in six months, Kwok and his opposition peers in the committee demonstrated their outright contempt for the popular will.

Kwok, as the previous deputy chairperson, has presided over 16 meetings of the committee since October with the only agenda of electing a new chairperson, without whom business cannot continue in the committee, and even in the whole LegCo. This is because the committee is tasked with setting the weekly agenda for the legislature, among other important duties.

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The selection of a new chairperson typically takes less than 30 minutes in its very first meeting. Yet, mired in a paralysis deliberately perpetuated by Kwok and his crew, the committee has wasted more than 20 meeting hours in over six months without deciding on who will lead it. The delay, a Guinness World Record for any parliamentary committee to select its chairperson, must have appalled people around the world.

The  filibustering stunts of Kwok and his accomplices have resulted in at least 14 bills and 79 pieces of subsidiary legislation being delayed from becoming laws, including some intended to improve people’s livelihood amid the current economic and public-health crisis.

By deliberately and persistently harming the public interest with filibustering, they are guilty of gross dereliction of duty, breach of oath and misconduct in public office, offenses that carry legal liabilities.

Kwok argued that he never broke any rules and regulations in discharging his duties as the presiding member of those committee meetings. But Kwok is deluded if he thinks he can fool the public, or the judges if he is brought to court for what he has done, with his chicanery. It is sheer dishonesty for Kwok, a lawyer, not to know that abiding by the rules means to “abide by the spirit but not the letter”. 

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Kwok and his opposition peers, when assuming office, took an oath to “uphold the Basic Law” and to “serve the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region conscientiously, dutifully … and with integrity.” How could their actions be “upholding the Basic Law” and “serving the HKSAR” when they were indulging in malfeasance and harming the public interest?

However skillful Kwok is in using his political sophistry, he cannot hide the fact that what his malicious crew have been doing in the House Committee is part of the opposition camp’s “scorched-earth strategy” to pursue political gains. But their tactics are a recipe for disaster for both Hong Kong and themselves. Both the central government authorities and Hong Kong people are unlikely to sit on their hands and let these political adventurers indulge in their “scorched-earth politics”.