Hong Kong parliament in chaos as politicians fight for chair

HONG KONG: Rival Hong Kong lawmakers clashed on Friday inside the city’s legislature which has been paralysed for seven months as pro-democracy politicians attempt to scupper a controversial law that bans insulting China’s national anthem.

The chaotic scenes come weeks after Beijing sparked a constitutional row by calling for filibustering opposition politicians to be removed from office.

Pro-democracy lawmakers are trying to stop bills progressing to a vote in order to scuttle the anthem law.

The delays triggered angry denunciations last month from the Liaison Office, which represents Beijing in the semi-autonomous city.

Friday’s clashes were sparked by a row over who gets to control the House Committee, which scrutinises bills before they go to the floor and has been without a committee leader since October.

For months pro-democracy politicians have halted the election of a president – one of the few weapons in their arsenal in the partly elected legislature that is deliberately stacked in Beijing’s favour.

On Friday afternoon prominent pro-Beijing politician Starry Lee took the leader’s seat after legal advice from government lawyers said she was empowered to break the deadlock.

But pro-democracy politicians, armed with their own rival legal advice, accused her of breaching the rules.

Mayhem ensued with security guards and pro-Beijing lawmakers surrounding Lee as their opponents tried to access the roster – with one even trying to climb a wall behind them.

Security officials later dragged multiple pro-democracy lawmakers from the chamber as both camps thrust live-streaming phones and protest placards in each others’ faces.

Beijing has been incensed by the paralysis and last month suggested pro-democracy politicians should be prosecuted.

Those comments sparked accusations the Liaison Office had breached a provision in the city’s constitution banning the Chinese government from interfering in how Hong Kong runs itself.

The Liaison Office promptly announced it was not bound by the constitution, raising political tensions further.

The argument comes as protests begin to bubble up in Hong Kong once more.

The city was upended by seven months of violent pro-democracy protests last year. But mass arrests and the coronavirus pandemic imposed four months of comparative calm.

Shortly after the Liaison Office statements small flashmob protests rekindled, including a lunchtime rally on Friday in an upmarket mall. The latest gatherings have been swiftly put down by riot police.

Hong Kong is in a deep political crisis over its future.

Large chunks of the population fear authoritarian Beijing is eroding the city’s freedoms and have hit the streets in their millions asking for universal suffrage.

Beijing has dismissed those demands and the growing public anger, portraying the political unrest as a foreign sponsored plot to destabilise the Chinese Communist Party.The chaos related to recent gridlock over electing a chair of the committee so that it can move to passing legislation, some of it highly controversial.Two bills were reportedly included in the government’s planned “urgent business” for the afternoon meeting. One is a controversial bill to criminalise disrespect of the national anthem, while the other is the long-shelved article 23 national security laws which sparked mass protests in 2003 and which Beijing has recently called for the urgent reintroduction of.

Opposition groups have been filibustering for at least 15 consecutive meetings presided over by Dennis Kwok, preventing the election of a new chairperson and prompting an extraordinary statement from Beijing’s most senior offices in Hong Kong accusing them, and in particular Kwok, of misconduct.

Delays continued on Friday, with two pieces of conflicting legal advice presented claiming Starry Lee both could and could not deal with committee matters as incumbent chair while standing for re-election.

An earlier session of the committee insisted no business could be handled until there was a new chairperson installed. After taking the chair, Lee attempted to drive the meeting forward regardless.

“The current logjam in LegCo is a direct result of a broken system where the only strategy that the democrats have, despite representing the majority, is filibustering,” said Johnny Patterson, director of Hong Kong Watch.

“Deadlock in a legislature often is part of a healthy democracy as it ensures the voice of the minority is heard and not trampled on. It happens in Congress & UK all the time. Rewriting the rules to bulldoze through bad legislation is not the answer.”

Friday’s melee drew comparisons to similar scenes last year over Hong Kong’s proposed extradition bill which sparked months of mass protests, sometimes with millions on the street, which are expected to begin again as concern over the pandemic diminishes.

Physical clashes had been expected again, with the meeting organisers reportedly preparing an alternative room.