Give HK's working moms a politics-free longer maternity leave

People can accomplish many things in three years. Some people lose 20 kilograms in three years. Some people finish their college education in three years. And I got married and had a baby in three years.

Late into my pregnancy in 2018, I was thrilled to find that the government proposed extending maternity leave from 10 weeks to 14 weeks - a tinkering that was still better than nothing. What I didn’t realize back then was that it may take the city’s mothers-to-be at least three years - by the end of 2021 - to maybe, finally see it through.

The long-in-the-making extension has become an unbearable pregnancy that might see a miscarriage at any moment, with the opposition lawmakers taking the Legislative Council’s rules in their hands. The bill was originally slated for first and second readings at the LegCo House Committee. The proposal got held up after the committee failed to elect its new head and deputy head owing to the filibustering by the opposition lawmakers. The government decided to take a detour by suggesting moving the non-controversial bill to the Panel on Manpower to speed up the lengthy process.

And there is no surprise there. Right away, the government’s move was demonized by the opposition camp, claiming this could become a “precedent” for the government in the future to pass whatever it would like. And of course, again for fearmongering purposes, they played the “Article 23” card - a requirement in the Basic Law to plug the city’s loophole in national security. In their eyes, everything - even a mother’s maternity leave - has to be about politics.

It’s dangerous when politicians place politics above everything because it gets them so detached from the general public. Worse, the majority of the city’s residents just rolls with it. What the opposition lawmakers didn’t tell people was that even if the government got what it wanted this time, the opposition lawmakers, as has been the case in the past, can always pull a stunt again to derail any “bad law” in the future.

So there is absolutely no logic in claiming that once this special arrangement is made for this apolitical maternity leave extension, a loophole is created for the government to get undesirable bills enacted in the future. The truth is, the opposition camp has wielded disproportionate “power” in LegCo over the past 22 years to thwart numerous bills proposed by the government, including the proposed legislation according to Article 23, by relentlessly playing the filibustering tactic. At their height, the filibustering stunts almost paralyzed the legislature, affecting the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people and wasting billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.

At the very least, the delay of the extension of maternity leave may affect about 27,000 working women. It, however, goes more than that. It shows that Hong Kong would have made no progress at all in legislating for a long-overdue social benefit.

A city with inefficiency would turn away talents not only in the innovation and technology sector that the government is trying very hard to promote, but practically in all sectors. It’s like: Who would date someone who promised to take you to Disneyland three years ago and yet today, all you get is “maybe”? Three years may seem short for a city, but it is definitely enough and precious if it is determined to achieve something. Otherwise, three years after another three years, and Hong Kong will find itself at a standstill.

I am sure that Hong Kong will not progress in the years to come if Hong Kong people continue to allow the opposition camp to dictate how things should be done in the city.

The author is deputy news editor with China Daily Hong Kong.