Pro-Beijing lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun has requested the legislature’s committee for internal affairs to put forward a condemnation motion next month to disqualify Civic Passion’s Cheng Chung-tai from the Legislative Council after he interfered with several Chinese and Hong Kong flags.
Cheng turned Chinese and Hong Kong flags on the desks of pro-Beijing camp lawmakers upside down twice during a meeting of the Legislative Council in protest of a pro-Beijing camp walk-out on October 19.
Tse wrote to Starry Lee Wai-king, chair of the House Committee, to ask it to move a motion on December 14 in the Legislative Council over the incident. A condemnation motion would need to be passed with the support of two-thirds of lawmakers present. The lawmaker would then be declared by the LegCo president to be no longer qualified for office.
“It is extreme misconduct… it may have caused an insult to the country, to Hong Kong, to the national flag, to the national emblem, or even the Basic Law that [they] represent, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that we pledge our loyalties to,” Tse said.
Tse added that he would continue raising the motion if Cheng did not offer a reasonable explanation and apologise.
But Cheng said he was not concerned.
“They should not have left the display [flags] inside the chamber, abandoning Hong Kong and the legislature,” he said. “I hope that for the sake of Hong Kong’s long term development, they should not waste time on this political ideology struggle.”
Lee said Cheng’s actions were equivalent to a “robber” who took other people’s belongings.
Civic Party leader lawmaker Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu said Tse’s proposed motion was unnecessary as voters would reflect their choices in elections, and that there was no need to employ administrative power in an effort to strip Cheng of his status.
Pro-Beijing lawmaker Edward Lau Kwok-fan previously reported the flag-flipping protest to the police and urged them to investigate and prosecute Cheng in accordance with the law. Lawmakers and district councillors of the New People’s Party have reported it to the Department of Justice and urged them to prosecute.
