Lawmakers Continue Duel Over HKMAO Comments

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continued their war of words on Wednesday over whether comments made by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) earlier this week amounted to interference in the SAR's internal affairs.

Speaking on an RTHK programme on Wednesday morning, Priscilla Leung from the Business and Professionals Alliance said the HKMAO has a right to express its views on what is going on in Hong Kong, especially at critical moments.

She said it would be negligent of the office not to do so on serious issues, and likened the recent comments to a doctor's concern over seeing a diabetic patient eating sugar.

But Democratic Party lawmaker Wu Chi-wai, who appeared on the same programme later, maintained that the selection of Legco's House Committee chairman is an internal matter for Hong Kong, and that the comments amounted to interference.

Wu went on to warn that suppressing the voices of Hongkongers would erode public trust in the central government and would make the situation worse.

On Monday, the HKMAO had issued a strongly-worded statement criticising pan-democrat lawmakers for disrupting Legco proceedings, specifically the months of filibustering in the Legco House Committee and the failure by the committee to choose a chairman since October.