Opposition Cries Foul As Legal Adviser Okays Change

The pro-democracy camp on Friday vowed to continue their fight as they accused a Legco legal adviser of making an “absolutely shocking” U-turn after the official said Starry Lee can preside over House Committee meetings given the "changed circumstances".

Legco legal adviser Connie Fung on Friday told lawmakers that now the situation has changed, it is okay for former House Committee chair Lee to preside over the proceedings and that earlier advice was based on the circumstances of last year.

After six months of meetings, the house committee has not elected a new chairperson and this is clearly abnormal, said the official.

Fung was speaking amid a stormy meeting of the committee which saw Lee occupying the presiding seat and pan-democrats trying to stop her. The opposition insisted that Dennis Kwok, who had been presiding over meetings since October, should continue to do so.

But the legal adviser who had last year said that Lee does not have the power to lead the committee meetings and the election of a chairperson should be held first, said the Legco Secretariat thinks as the last chair of the committee, Lee has the responsibility to solve this new problem.

As the official was speaking, the opposition continued to raise slogans drowning out most of what was being said.

Speaking to the media during a brief suspension of the meeting after some disturbance in the public gallery, Kwok slammed the legal adviser’s new stance.

“It’s shocking, absolutely shocking,” he said, adding that this is a change from the legal official’s view for the past seven months.

“Today we see a 180 degree turn on the part of the legal adviser. Frankly as a lawyer, I can’t see why that is possible, but, you know, there are lawyers who stand firm on legal principles,” said the lawmaker who is also a barrister.

“Today what’s happened is that the power to preside over the meeting was rudely and without justification taken away from the proper interpretation of the rules of procedure, which is that the first order of business must be the election of the house chair,” said Kwok.

The pro-democracy camp said they will follow up on the legal adviser's change in her position and see what they can do.

The Professionals Guild's Charles Mok said this is not the end of the camp's fight in the House Committee.

“It will only be the end if the people of Hong Kong choose to end the fight. And I believe the people of Hong Kong will not choose to end the fight like this,” he said.

“We will do our part inside the legislature. But we need the people of Hong Kong, whatever they can [do] to win this fight,” said Mok.

But DAB lawmaker Holden Chow said he disagrees the opposition’s allegation about the meeting chaired by Lee is not legal binding.

"I definitely believe the meeting conducted this afternoon is legitimate and the incumbent chairperson Starry Lee does have the full power and responsibility to convene the meeting," he said.

Chow said he is disappointed with the clashes that happened during the meeting and said the pan-democrats were fully responsible for this.

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