Former DAB head: New CE to hold more talks with opposition

Veteran Hong Kong politician Tam Yiu-chung hopes Chief Executive-designate Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's governance team will perform well.

He also expects better working relations between the new-term government and the opposition camp as some of her cabinet members can communicate better with the "pan-democrats".

"The new cabinet brings no pleasant surprises, knowing most of them are old faces and ex-civil servants," he said. "But the advantage is they can adapt to one another easily, while team spirit is the most important factor."

Discussing Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-cheung, the former chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong rates him well. Tam said Cheung is a stable, reliable, hardworking and very experienced official who is diplomatic without causing controversy.

"Cheung has worked closely with Carrie Lam on poverty and retirement protection issues in previous years," Tam said. "Since Lam is a person who has lots of ideas and hates to do nothing, it is good to have someone like Cheung to implement her ideas."

Tam hopes there will be a honeymoon period for the new government and the "pan-democrats".

"I hope the opposition will change their mindset with a new CE and not oppose everything like before. Although Lam does not want strained relations, she will not accept unreasonable demands from the opposition," he ventured

Despite having left the legislature, Tam knows very well what is happening. The opposition camp is better behaved after the disqualification of two pro-independence lawmakers.

But Tam said the opposition does not seem to want to see things being done properly; they continue to make trouble in the Legislative Council.

He is well aware that the opposition obstructs supplementary funding for the Sha Tin to Central Link rail project and funding for the proposed Kai Tak Sports Park. They even oppose using part of the LegCo plenary meeting time on Thursday for meetings of the Finance Committee - which suffers from a funding-proposal bottleneck.

"They claim they do not filibuster but they ask endless questions and motions at meetings. This is on the pretext that they have a duty to monitor the government and are not rubber stamps," Tam noted.

"But do they want to have the rail project abandoned when they oppose the supplementary funding? Do they really want discussions when they move motions to adjourn a funding item and even adjourn the meeting at almost every meeting?

"They even argue a lot when the normal practice is to curtail duration of the voting bell from five minutes to one minute because of the large number of motions that they raise," Tam added.

joseph@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 06/23/2017 page4)