In a U-turn, government number two Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor decided against meeting pan-democrats to discuss details of the controversial copyright bill because she was clueless about the bill’s contents.
But the chief secretary urged them to return to the Legislative Council chamber to focus on the bill rather than filibustering or using quorum calls to force a halt to proceedings as taxpayers were paying them HK$93,500 per month – a third of Lam’s salary – to do the job.
Last week Lam criticised pan-democrats for filibustering and said she was willing to meet them for a dialogue. However, she changed her tune yesterday.
She told the media that Legco was in limbo but she had no plans to meet pan-democrats on the issue.
“The copyright bill is being handled by the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, which is under the portfolio of the Financial Secretary. Therefore, I have no clue about the content of the bill,” Lam said yesterday.
“Thus, if pan-democrats want to discuss the content or amendments of the bill, I’m incapable of discussing these issues with them.”
