When Hong Kong’s lawmakers can’t get their own house in order, no wonder Beijing is stepping in

Toxic politics has crippled Hong Kong. While Beijing officials act with lightning speed on important legislative work in the shape of a new national security law, we cannot even enact a waste disposal charge, vacancy tax on property or an extension to maternity leave

Alice Wu

Published: 6:30am, 29 Jun 2020

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When it comes to political will, Beijing’s is astonishing. For proof, look no further than the tailor-made national security law for Hong Kong.

It was only on May 28 that the National People’s Congress approved a last-minute resolution for its Standing Committee to do what the Hong Kong government was supposed to do. The breakneck speed at which the legislative work has been carried out for something of paramount importance is truly incredible.

And this efficiency does not seem to be bound by the inherent complexities of “one country, two systems”. In less than one month, 12 high-level consultation sessions were conducted, attended by more than 100 Hongkongers and senior mainland Chinese officials, and hosted by the central government liaison office.

The citywide public signature drive in support of the legislation returned almost 3 million signatures in just eight days – amid the Covid-19 pandemic, no less. That is extraordinary, too, and makes one wonder why Article 23 was such a big deal back in 2003. To think, national security legislation was once considered such a liability that everyone stayed away.

Certainly, Beijing’s efficiency has left Hongkongers, known for getting things done, in the dust. That is most obvious when we consider the progress of the health code system that was supposed to create a travel bubble for Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province to facilitate travel amid Covid-19 quarantine requirements.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the plan in May and some work has apparently been done, but it has yet to yield any results.

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Surely, agreeing on standards to certify individuals as Covid-19-free is nowhere near as complex as formulating laws criminalising secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign and external powers, and for them to work across two different legal systems and jurisdictions.

It proves once again that where there is enough will, there is a way, no matter how seemingly insurmountable the challenges.

While we watch, from a distance, Beijing lawmakers working at lightning speed to get the job done, we have witnessed the opposite here at home: legislators shelving another bill.

The Rating (Amendment) Bill 2019 was supposed to impose a vacancy tax, to punish property developers that hoard newly completed flats, taking advantage of and exacerbating the city’s severe housing shortage to push up prices.

After the government finally worked up the political courage to take on developers with this one small gesture, it was then ditched because our legislature has become so dysfunctional that it ran out of time to vet the bill.

Ignoring their constitutional duty, lawmakers and the government barely put up a fight, conveniently allowing developers to continue their stockpiling without penalty. As restaurants, shops and kindergartens are forced out by huge rent increases even amid the extraordinary disruptions brought on by Covid-19, developers and landlords still get all the breaks.

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The lack of time and political will have resulted in the shelving of other bills that would have laid the groundwork for some long-awaited changes. One is for the mandatory waste disposal charge. More than a decade of effort and resources put into reducing waste have effectively gone into our overflowing landfills, along with the enormous amount of waste the city produces each day.

As of now, 13 bills, including one that would extend statutory maternity leave from 10 weeks to 14, could lapse as the legislative term draws to a close.

As we prepare to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the handover, there is little to celebrate. While laments over the inefficiencies of democratic systems are nothing new, toxic politics has taken over and crippled our government and legislature, undermining one country, two systems.

When extending maternity leave to 14 weeks cannot even be guaranteed, when ordinary people are not protected from property developers’ blatant manipulation of the housing supply to keep home prices soaring and when more than a decade’s worth of public resources are tossed out like rubbish, we are inviting Beijing to step in.

Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA

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