Filibustering bid doomed

Radical lawmakers' filibustering bid on the budget bill is doomed from the very beginning as they have picked the wrong game in their latest populist campaign. Any delay in the passing of the fiscal budget in the LegCo could affect the government's normal operations and hinder its services to the people, including the provision of relief and subsidies to the poor and the needy. In a worst-case scenario, the government could even be paralyzed. Aside from working against the public interest, the reasons cited for the filibustering campaign - the omission of a universal pension plan and the skipping of an outright cash handout in the budget - are also morally indefensible.

It is common knowledge that the proposition of a universal pension protection is full of controversies and no consensus has been achieved in society. It is unrealistic to expect the government to launch any plan or even make any pledge before conducting sufficient consultation and study. Meanwhile, the city's relatively robust economy with a historically low jobless rate now does not warrant an outright cash handout, which is of no help in tackling the city's deep-rooted and long-term problems.

Obviously, these nonsensical reasons have been taken merely to disguise another populist show. In fact, radical lawmakers - including the League of Social Democrats' Leung Kwok-hung and People Power's Wong Yuk-man - have capitalized on every available opportunity in the LegCo to increase their media exposure in pursuit of political gains, even chanting cheap slogans and storming the chamber as their best strategy.

So far, Leung alone has made headlines more than one hundred times on local media for spearheading the filibustering bid. But it would be too early for Leung to chuckle to himself as his newly-received publicity will prove to be negative eventually. Leung and his peers in the opposition camp have already tasted the bitterness of being denounced and cursed by the general public when their previous filibustering move prevented about 400,000 seniors from receiving an enhanced old-age living allowance of HK$2,200.

Realizing the nonsense of this new filibustering bid, lawmakers from other opposition parties such as the Democratic Party, the Civic Party and the Labour Party have all rejected the campaign and tried to distance themselves from the radicals.

(HK Edition 04/23/2013 page1)