'Quitting Legco Panels Won't Affect Our Work'

The pro-establishment camp insists a move by lawmakers to quit Legco panels would not affect their work in monitoring the government.

Since mid-November, the welfare services, economic development, and information technology and broadcasting panels have each lost at least 10 members, while other panels also saw a drop in membership.

This follows the mass resignation of pan-democratic lawmakers sparked by the disqualification of four of their colleagues, who were earlier barred from running in the now-delayed 2020 Legislative Council election.

But even before the mass resignation, pro-government lawmakers had dominated all Legco panels by outnumbering their rivals and taking over the chairmanship.

Insurance sector lawmaker Chan Kin-por and Jeffrey Lam from the Business and Professionals Alliance are among those topping the list, each quitting seven panels.

Alice Mak of the Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) also stepped down from several panels, but denied that her rivals' resignation is the main reason behind her move, saying she just wants to make the best use of her time.

“We have a division of labour among members of the FTU. We hope that we can make well use of our time. It will not affect our quality of work,” she said.

She added that she can still question officials even though she stops serving on panels.

“Even if we are not a member of certain panels, we can still attend the meetings when necessary. So we can still raise questions, and it will not deter us from focusing or talking about issues of those panels.”