No House Committee Meeting This Week: Starry Lee

DAB Chairwoman Starry Lee said on Wednesday that there will be no Legco House Committee on Friday to give both camps a chance to calm down, and to discuss the way forward.

Legco saw hours-long disturbances during the committee’s last meeting with Lee, who chaired the committee last year, taking control of the proceedings amid scuffles between lawmakers and security staff. Two opposition lawmakers were hospitalised after the chaos.

Lee has insisted that she has the authority to call special meetings of the committee to handle urgent items, which have piled up after the committee failed to elect a chairman since October.

But pan-democrats, who had disputed this and called last Friday’s meeting “illegal”, said Lee’s move of not holding a meeting this week is an abuse of her powers.

Civic Party lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who has been presiding over the chairman election, said Lee is showcasing how an incumbent House Committee chair can abuse her power to delay the election indefinitely, so she can stay in power.

Kwok also added that it's now entirely possible that the contentious new national anthem law would resume its second reading at Legco's council meeting on May 27, without first getting House Committee approval.