With the 2020 Legislative Council elections only four months away, many of our current legislators and potential wannabes are displaying a total lack of maturity. Six months into the current session, the all-important House Committee meetings have still failed to elect its new chairperson, due to filibustering by the Civic Party’s Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, the committee’s deputy chairman, and his collaborators.
Kwok has his own agenda, but his close association with US politicians and the administration draws a suspicious line. This association offers him protection by the United States that should anything “untoward” happen to him, it would be seen as “political persecution”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Freedom of speech is a fundamental freedom enshrined in the Basic Law, and as he paints himself as a would-be martyr, he has every right to do so. But he must be held accountable for halting the wheels of progress. He is being seen as deliberately and maliciously undermining the governance of Hong Kong. He has a responsibility to his constituents, the legal fraternity and the people of Hong Kong. He has the support of some members of the bar, but warnings come from Lawyers HK, a group of legal professionals who “are concerned about misconceptions by the public of the political stance of the legal profession as a whole and the legality or legal consequences of unlawful acts, and intend to make our voices known to the public to correct any such misconceptions”.
He (Dennis Kwok) is being seen as deliberately and maliciously undermining the governance of Hong Kong. He has a responsibility to his constituents, the legal fraternity and the people of Hong Kong
Kwok is young, brash and arrogant. An eloquent speaker, he is a barrister-at-law and does what many members of the legal profession do best: use the most improbable logic to argue if necessary. He claims his actions of doing nothing in the House Committee meetings are within the law and the LegCo Rules of Procedure. He is supported by fellow “pan-democrats” but condemned by the pro-establishment camp. The Friday House Committee meetings he has presided over have often broken out in chaos, with screaming matches and finger-pointing across the chamber. But they still achieved nothing.
Kwok, as the deputy chairman, has presided over 15 meetings of the House Committee since October to elect a chairperson, without whom business cannot continue in the committee. His neglect has resulted in at least 14 bills and 80 pieces of subsidiary legislation being stalled from becoming law, a total dereliction of duty. The committee forms committees to scrutinize bills and appoints subcommittees to study subsidiary legislation in greater detail.
Among the legislation caught in the backlog is a bill that would increase statutory maternity leave from 10 to 14 weeks, as well as the hotly debated National Anthem Bill. This means that hundreds of thousands of mothers have been denied an extra four weeks of maternity leave proposed by the government. But it is believed that the proposed National Anthem Bill is the real reason Kwok is using filibustering techniques to stall LegCo progress.
Pro-establishment members accuse Kwok of misconduct in public office, a charge he fervently denies. Misconduct could be seen if someone behaves “without a reasonable excuse or justification, and where such misconduct is serious having regard to his or her responsibilities” under the Criminal Procedure Ordinance. Punishment can be up to seven years in prison and a fine. What will happen remains to be seen.
Kwok seems hellbent on bringing Hong Kong to its knees. He has made numerous trips to the US speaking to Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many others. At a meeting with the Asia Society in New York, Kwok and Civic Party colleague Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu accused Hong Kong police of “abuse of power” and “brutality” during the anti-extradition-bill protests. They made no mention of the acts of terrorism involving arson, murder, intimidation, coercion and wanton vandalism perpetrated by the black-clad protesters, costing the city billions of dollars. At the meetings, they reiterated the five demands of the terrorists, including the release of all arrested during the months of bloody violence. Yeung also urged international organizations to ask their countries to cease exportation of crowd control agents and training to the Hong Kong Police Force.
The pair traveled frequently to the US and the United Kingdom to incite hatred toward Hong Kong and Beijing by spreading disinformation about Beijing’s “interference” in Hong Kong. Kwok fails to realize that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China. As such, the central government has every right to comment on the day-to-day running of its own special administrative regions. It can be compared to the rights of federal governments in the US, the UK and Australia overseeing the running of their states.
Kwok, seeking public sympathy, believes he will be ousted from LegCo. If that is the case, it will not be by the central government but by his peers in LegCo or the Hong Kong Department of Justice. Of course, such a disqualification will draw an immediate backlash from Kwok’s friends overseas, which is exactly what he wants.
The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a PR/media consultant and a veteran journalist.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
