Oct 14, 2010
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen refused last night to say if his administration would take legal action, saying the issue was being looked at by Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung. Unless the government persuades a court to overturn the motion, the move to extend the Tseung Kwan O landfill into five hectares of the Clear Water Bay Country Park will be blocked, cutting three years from the life span of the tip.
Defending the government's recycling efforts, which he called among the best anywhere, Tsang warned of dire consequences for waste management and called for work to begin immediately to identify sites for new landfills. "We need to do this now if we are to avoid the consequences of having our rubbish just abandoned in the streets," he said. He will also seek to find out during a trip to Japan next month how every district there could have an incinerator, an option he said lawmakers also did not favour. Tsang also questioned whether the motion - which drew support across the political spectrum, including from government allies - was election-driven. "We all know there is an election ahead and everybody will scramble for Tseung Kwan O." If legislators were seeking political support in Tseung Kwan O, they seemed to have succeeded. Residents joined local politicians in a champagne celebration. Some lawmakers appealed to the government to reconsider seeking a judicial review of the vote, saying it would have far-reaching, and undesirable, consequences. "It is not about whether you can launch a review, but whether you should," said legislator Wong Yuk-man, of the League of Social Democrats. "This is a clearly a political issue, not a legal one and therefore should not be settled in court." Gary Chan Hak-kan, from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, warned it would create a lose-lose situation for lawmakers and the administration, regardless of the result. "If we are defeated, our constitutional power will be lost. If the government loses, its authority will also be undermined," he said. The motion, proposed by Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan, was backed by 55 of 59 lawmakers. The only votes against came from Lau Wong-fat and Lau Kong-wah - both also members of the Executive Council. Chim Pui-chung, who represents the financial sector, abstained, while Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, who represents the sports, arts, culture and publishing sectors, was absent. As Chan's motion was passed, a government motion tabled to delay the commencement date of the chief executive's order by 14 months to January 2012 was not put to a vote. "The matter has developed beyond our expectations. But what we face today is all the government's fault," Chan said. A history of town planning flaws and poorly implemented policies on waste management were also to blame. She said after the vote that she believed the government would announce the repeal of its plan tomorrow, but this did not mean officials had ruled out legal action. Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah began his final appeal for support for the extension by admitting he had not anticipated the way events unfolded. "The issue has developed in a way that the government did not want to see. But we don't want to see the legal dispute hinder efforts to handle the waste problem." He said lawmakers and the administration had a "collective responsibility" to reach a consensus on waste solutions. "If you ask me if I feel frustrated and see the massive stumbling blocks ahead, I can only say there remains an urgent issue we must deal with," he said. But his appeal fell on deaf ears among lawmakers, many of whom attacked the government for its failures of waste management.
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