Why the Hong Kong government is really reaching out to the pan-democrats

Sonny Lo says while Chief Secretary Carrie Lam’s overture to the pan-democrats is a commendable attempt to break the impasse in the legislature, it is also a calculated move, in view of the upcoming Legco election

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Why you can trust SCMP

Sonny Lo

Published: 5:29pm, 24 Mar 2016Updated: 5:29pm, 24 Mar 2016

If the administration were to keep up its obstinate position, pro-government forces would probably encounter tremendous voter pressure, risking their majority control in the legislature.

The recent dialogue between Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and pan-democratic legislators in finding a consensus to prioritise bills on livelihood issues in the Legislative Council could be seen as a significant breakthrough in the lengthy executive-legislative impasse in the city.

The deadlock has been marked not only by the filibustering efforts of pan-democratic lawmakers over controversial bills, but also by the endless disputes in the Finance Committee over proposals for contentious projects, such the high-speed railway. While the government withdrew the copyright amendment bill in the face of ferocious opposition from the democrats, the Finance Committee rushed through the request for extra funding for the railway, to the anger of the democrats.

The atmosphere inside the legislature is far from conducive to political harmony in Hong Kong, where both society and the polity are arguably suffering from a post-Occupy legacy of ideological polarisation.

Pan-democratic legislators fiercely opposed granting extra funding to the high-speed railway project. Photo: David Wong

A softer, gentler Beijing shows its good grasp of what’s ailing Hong Kong

Some observers have attributed the government’s dialogue with the democrats to Beijing’s “new” softer policy that emphasises conciliation. This view ignores the fact that the central government has, since the end of the Occupy Central movement in December 2014, been leaving the SAR to tackle its internal matters, which have ranged from the decision to prosecute law-breakers in the Occupy movement to the actions dealing with the participants in the Mong Kok riot this year.