Filibuster hurts livelihood

The Legislative Council (LegCo) is scheduled to resume the second reading of the 2013-14 Budget on Wednesday and four lawmakers representing People Power and the Legion of Social Democrats have prepared more than 800 changes for another round of filibuster aimed at paralyzing the government. As the budget plan concerns funding for a full range of policy spending on economic development and people's livelihood as well as the government's daily operations, the filibuster by opposition lawmakers can seriously hurt many local residents' well-being. Those opposing-for-opposition's-sake legislators must be condemned for such outrageous stunts.

No normal legislature in the world would let its members play with filibuster as long as they want, but Hong Kong's has been repeatedly disrupted by such delays in recent years and could not do anything about it. This is a problem members of society should think over and LegCo should amend its Rules of Procedure to restrict ill-motivated filibuster.

The opposition has extended the range of its filibuster tactics to target not only political bills such as the government reorganization plan but also economic and welfare spending since the current SAR government was sworn in. Even the Old Age Living Allowance, designed to benefit hundreds of thousands of senior citizens in need, was delayed for months by the same politicians who are set to do it again this week to delay the fiscal budget plan at the expense of the government as well as the general public. The fact is they enjoy filibuster so much they cannot care less about how badly it will hurt people's livelihood.

Although filibuster is not unique to Hong Kong it is much easier to pull off here than elsewhere thanks to the loopholes in the existing Rules of Procedure of LegCo that allow lawmakers to delay or even decimate a bill with repetitive and worthless speeches as well as thousands of preposterous amendments that have to be debated according to current rules. In the past some opposition parties said publicly they would not take part in a filibuster campaign but played their part in a different manner, such as forcing LegCo to abort a vote by playing truant or deliberate late arrival.

Hong Kong residents hate to see their well-being jeopardized as a result of the fiscal budget being delayed by opposition filibuster. It will be a real test for all lawmakers as to who they serve, public interest or their own parties'.

This is an excerpted translation of a Wen Wei Po editorial published on April 16.

Help the needy survive

The Consumer Council on Monday released the 2012 Supermarket Price Survey, which found an aggregate average increase of 6.8 percent from a year earlier among 12 categories of food and other daily necessities sold at the city's three leading supermarket chains. Among the monitored consumer items the prices of several popular canned meat and egg products rose by double digits.

The wide-ranging consumer price hikes have been trending for over a year now. The Consumer Council Price Survey covers only the three leading supermarkets, but the reality is that other segments of the retail market, including street markets, convenience stores, drug stores and grocery shops, are also under the inflationary spell. The days are gone when people can go to street markets or neighborhood shops if they find the prices at supermarkets too high.

With price hikes showing no sign of abating, the low-income households are hardest pressed financially to survive, with senior citizens and small children's well-being in particular danger and in desperate need of any assistance available from the government.

The new HK$2,200 Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) finally began monthly issuance this month, but it will be canceled out easily soon by soaring prices of food and other daily necessities. It appears the first move of the current SAR government in poverty relief is too little too late from the start thanks to persistent inflation. It means the authorities should consider additional measures to help the needy survive the continuing financial squeeze.

For the same reason it is high time the government picked up the pace of operations of the newly-resurrected Commission on Poverty, which is headed by Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam, the long-awaited discussion about the establishment of an official poverty line and the Community Care Fund.

Admittedly these facilities will not be able to help any time, the government should seriously consider offering the underprivileged individuals and families a one-off "counter-inflation allowance" that people suggested some time ago.

This is an excerpted translation of a Ta Kung Pao editorial published on April 16.

(HK Edition 04/17/2013 page7)