Hong Kong Photo: Unsplash

 
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has allowed all lawmakers of the current Legislative Council to their extended terms, which means incumbent lawmakers disqualified from the next election will stay in the city's legislature until at least September 2021, analysts and politicians said on Thursday.

This shows that the HKSAR government wants to be lenient and to give disqualified lawmakers a chance for "self-correction," said analysts. But if they do not change their extreme and separatist stance against the "one country two systems," the national security law for Hong Kong is ready to punish their illegal acts, analysts and Hong Kong politicians said.

The HKSAR government's news website on Wednesday said Chief Executive Carrie Lam met Legislative Council President Andrew Leung late at night on Tuesday to relay to him the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) for the sixth-term LegCo to continue to discharge duties and exchange views on the resumption of operations.

Stressing that the postponement of the 2020 Legislative Council General Election was a very difficult decision, Lam told Leung that the decision was necessary in view of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong, public safety and public health, as well as to ensure the election can be conducted openly and fairly. Lam said she was pleased to note that the decision has been well received by the community, including pro-establishment LegCo members.

Hong Kong Photo:VCG

Lam told Leung at the meeting that "the current epidemic situation in Hong Kong remains severe, and various sectors have been hit hard. Even after the epidemic has eased, there will still be much work on boosting economic recovery and relieving people's burden, which would require the cooperation of the executive branch and the legislature.

Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a member of the Executive Council, Chief Executive Carrie Lam's de facto cabinet, also said the four disqualified lawmakers could stay in the extended term, and insisted any oath-taking would be unnecessary, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday.

The experts said this shows the chief executive doesn't want political struggles in the LegCo to distract from the most important and urgent work at the moment: To control the epidemic situation, and to realize economic recovery.

The meeting between the chief executive and the LegCo chairman decided that the next session of LegCo will start in the first half of October, and lawmakers do not need to take the oath again, Kennedy Wong Ying-ho, solicitor of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong and a pro-establishment candidate for the next LegCo election, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

Given that the seventh LegCo nomination and election preparation work has already ended, the previous disqualification is not effective anymore, and there will be re-nomination next year, while electoral officers will need to reevaluate their qualifications, Wong noted.

Li Xiaobing, a Hong Kong affairs legal expert at Nankai Univerisity in Tianjin, told the Global Times on Wednesday that "according to Lam's words, the HKSAR government has already shown its sincerity to set aside differences and disputes, and if the opposition thinks the same way, that would be good for the society. But at the moment, the opposition remains divided."  

Hong Kong media reported that some extreme opposition politicians and anti-government activists have urged all opposition lawmakers to resign from the LegCo to oppose the NPC standing committee's decision, as they think it would be impossible to control the legislature of the city through an election in an unreasonable political atmosphere, so that they can paralyze the government to realize their unrealistic and separatist demands as soon as possible.

However, other centrist and opposition politicians do not want to abandon their positions, because if they resign, they will lose their influence in Hong Kong's political system. 

Lam explained that the HKSAR government is hammering out details on anti-epidemic work supported by the Chinese central government. The chief executive further said the HKSAR government will explain it to LegCo members in detail later. Lam will also meet current-term LegCo members in batches to hear their views, the HKSAR government's news website said.

Leung said at a press conference on Tuesday that the LegCo welcomes the decision of the NPC standing committee, which can ensure the normal operations of the HKSAR government under the serious epidemic situation. And he also expressed hope that lawmakers from different political parties can work together, and set aside their differences, to improve residents' livelihood and help the city recover from the tough situation.

People wearing face masks walk along a street of Causeway Bay amid COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, south China, Aug. 1, 2020. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

What next?

Analysts said that the decision is lenient and generous as some pro-establishment forces said disqualified lawmakers should not be allowed to stay in LegCo at all, and that this is a chance for the opposition to carefully consider their future path.

Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, a current LegCo lawmaker, told the Global Times on Wednesday that "those stubborn and extreme opposition politicians won't listen to our suggestion. In the past year, we have said what we need to say, and they just don't understand, and they continue to try to push their radical and separatist activities, and kidnap the city to serve their extreme purposes."

"If they continue to support violent riots and gang up with foreign forces, and try to let the city burn with them only because the government refuses to accept their unrealistic demands, the national security law is waiting for them," Ho said.

The LegCo has many crucial things to do in the extended term, the most important of which is on public health and how to control and learn to live with the epidemic situation. The national security legislation under the framework of the Basic Law is also an essential obligation, Ho said. 

Li said this would be a good chance for the HKSAR to explore how to operate the legislature and work with the Chinese mainland amid a special situation, and would be a significant development of the "one country two systems" policy.

Ho said the education and jurisdiction reforms are also key issues that the LegCo should focus on. Problems in the education and judicial sectors have led to damage to the public order and economy of the city. 

"If we don't fix these problems and correct the mistakes in our system, a tragedy like the 2019 turmoil could happen again. Fortunately, the national security law for Hong Kong has already been enacted, which was based on the efforts of the central government, so the HKSAR should also do its part," he said. 


Newspaper headline: HK govt gives disqualified lawmakers LegCo extension