Focus On People Instead Of Legco Safety: Paul Tse

Pro-establishment lawmaker Paul Tse said on Friday that the government should first start talking to the people, rather than consolidating the security of the Legislative Council.

“I think building up communication channels is far more important than building up castles at the moment,” he said, adding that no matter how strong the defences are, they are always “breakable”.

He welcomed an attempt by Chief Executive Carrie Lam to hold private meetings with students over the extradition bill crisis, although the invitation has been rejected by the student unions of the University of Science and Technology and Chinese University because of their opposition to the closed-door nature of the meetings offered.

Tse said he believes something can be worked out if both sides are sincere about it. “Given the sincerity of both sides, there are certainly ways that they could meet up in a way that would be acceptable to both parties concerned,” he said.

The lawmaker told RTHK's Carol Mang that he did not favour a call by some opposition lawmakers to resume the Legislative Council in September, but said lawmakers should try hard to handle livelihood-related funding requests that are not controversial at the moment.

“Maybe another way to go about it is to have some kind of short brief meetings, whereby members or some part of them can put their heads together and ... formally pass the items,” he said.