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Tsang's action reasonable

Legislative Council (LegCo) President Tsang Yok-sing's move to terminate radical legislators' filibuster maneuvers on the budget bill is a legal, reasonable yet difficult action.

Under Article 73 of the Basic Law, LegCo has the constitutional responsibility to examine and approve budgets introduced by the government.

With the filibuster dragging on, the odds that lawmakers fail to pass the new budget in time are high, and a "fiscal cliff" crisis is looming, threatening the normal operations of the government and smooth functioning of society.

As president of LegCo, Tsang is under obligation, and has the power, to make sure the legislature carry out its duties effectively for the sake of society.

This power to stop unreasonable delaying tactics in LegCo has been reaffirmed by court rulings recently.

On April 18, the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that rejected LegCo member Leung Kwok-hung's judicial challenge against the LegCo president's decision to halt a filibuster by the same group of radical legislators on the Legislative Council Ordinance (Amendment) Bill 2011 in May 2012. Both court rulings have reaffirmed the LegCo president's power to apply the Rules of Procedure to end debates in appropriate circumstances.

Tsang's move is also fair and sensible. Before making the decision to halt the endless obstructionist tactics, he showed a considerable amount of tolerance towards the filibustering maneuvers of the few radical LegCo members during the past couple of weeks.

The filibusterers have been allowed ample time to make their political appeals known to the public, to demonstrate whatsoever gestures they want their voters and supporters to see, and to haggle with the Leung Chun-ying administration on their demands - albeit unjustifiable.

The looming "fiscal cliff" crisis and the consequent chaos anticipated for society has left the LegCo president no choice but to take action to halt the few radical members' obstructing tactics, which is against the desire of the majority of legislators, the government and the general public for the budget bill to be passed as soon as possible.

This is definitely a difficult decision for Tsang to make. But anyone who is in the same position and with the same amount of social consciousness and political conscience is obliged to take the same action. After all, Tsang's move demonstrated democracy in action.

The author is a current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 05/14/2013 page1)