Alice Mak Urges National Security Probe Into Rivals

Pro-Beijing legislator Alice Mak has urged Legco president Andrew Leung to look into whether pro-democracy lawmakers have violated the national security law with their filibustering in the council.

Mak, from the Federation of Trade Unions, said Leung should study whether the pan-democrats' behaviour amounted to serious disruption of Legco proceedings.

"The national security law states that it's an offence if anyone seriously interferes in, disrupts, or undermines the performance of duties and functions in accordance with the law by the body of central power of the People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the HKSAR. The president should consider whether the pan-democrats' action is a serious disruption," she said.

"He is obliged to make sure our meetings can proceed smoothly and effectively and limit the time for some discussions," she said.

Lawmakers had been looking at the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which the pro-government side describes as "non-controversial".

Martin Liao, the convenor of the pro-government camp, said it is an omnibus bill that only involves minor changes to some wording. He also urged the Legco president to tackle the pan-democrats' filibustering.

"The opposition lawmakers keep making quorum calls and keep repeating [themselves]. It's ridiculous," he said.

The convenor of the pan-democratic camp, Wu Chi-wai, admitted that they had been filibustering discussions, saying they want to delay the passage of laws that will hurt the public interest, such as the government's plan to let Hong Kong people who live in the Greater Bay Area vote in future Legco polls, without coming back to the SAR.

"We don't have many tools left to stop evil laws introduced by the government. We can only do whatever we can within our limited abilities, such as speaking continuously and making quorum calls to delay the Legco proceedings, in order to protect Hong Kong's core values," Wu said.

He dismissed Mak's suggestion that the opposition lawmakers might have breached the national security law, saying they are fulfilling their duties by making use of Legco's rules of procedure in order to do something good for Hong Kong.