President of HK legislature recalls 'roller coaster' four years at helm

Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, the outgoing president of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Legislative Council, said his four years at the helm were like "riding a roller coaster".

Leung, who has been a lawmaker since 2004 and the Legislative Council's president since 2016, has yet to decide whether he will run for another term at the helm of the legislature.

In a joint media interview on Monday, including with China Daily, Leung said although there was a honeymoon period with the government when Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor took office, relations between the legislature and the executive have since then often been very strained.

Relations hit an all-time low last year when the Legislative Council complex was trashed by masked radicals and the House Committee, a key body of the legislature, was paralyzed for about seven months owing to opposition filibustering.

"There were sad moments, particularly when I saw the LegCo complex and its chamber were in a shambles after it was sabotaged (by violent rioters) on July 1, 2019," he said.

Owing to the damage to the Legislative Council building and its facilities, meetings were suspended for several months, followed by the stagnation of the House Committee because the election of its chairperson was held up by filibustering for about seven months.

Leung stressed that the duty of legislators is to serve Hong Kong people.

"They can choose the way they present their views. Yet the opposition camp hold placards, shout, filibuster at meetings and get expelled from meetings. They do not form a good impression in the minds of citizens, and they let citizens down," Leung said.

In December 2017, legislators initiated massive amendments to the Legislative Council's Rules of Procedure to minimize the possibility of disruptive filibustering. Asked if further amendments are to be expected, Leung said that the Legislative Council will decide this during its next term.

"It must be noted that the judgment of the Court of Final Appeal says legislators have no right to filibuster, while the meeting time belongs to the entire legislature, and not to an individual legislator. The Court of First Instance also rules that the powers of the president of the Legislative Council in presiding at the meetings by virtue of Article 72 of the Basic Law of the HKSAR include the power to adjourn the meeting at the right time and put matters to vote," he said.

For the 2020-21 budget, Leung had set aside more than 30 hours for debate but the opposition camp filibustered as usual to delay important measures related to people's livelihoods.

"They did not use the time properly, using various tricks to delay and abort the meeting and also complaining there was not enough time. This made me wonder whether they did not have sufficient time or had too much time."