Time to listen to people's voices

With the majority of Hong Kong residents throwing their weight behind the proposed co-location arrangement for the future West Kowloon terminus of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, many naturally expected the special administrative region government would launch the three-step process designed for its implementation without any further delay. After all, the government is under pressure to meet the schedule for the operation of the high-speed rail link, which is set to begin in the third quarter of next year.

Instead, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday said the government would table a non-binding motion to the Legislative Council on Oct 25 to launch a debate on the co-location plan before starting the three-step process. Given that lawmakers will have enough opportunities to thoroughly discuss the arrangement when it goes to the legislature for the local legislation procedure - the third step of the three-step process, the "non-binding motion" initiative is obviously redundant. The move could only be interpreted as a demonstration of Lam's respect for, as well as her sincerity to cooperate with, the legislature.

Unfortunately, the goodwill Lam demonstrated failed to receive a favorable response from the opposition camp. Immediately after the initiative was announced, some key members of both the Democratic Party and Civic Party flatly rejected it, saying they would oppose the motion.

The need to implement a joint checkpoint arrangement for the West Kowloon terminus is a no-brainer. Both independent experts and those commissioned by the government have concluded that the proposed joint checkpoint arrangement is the only feasible solution for the high-speed rail link to achieve its full economic benefits and thus make the HK$84.4-billion infrastructure project worth the investment.

Indeed, one only needs common sense to grasp the logic and reason behind such an arrangement. This has been evidenced by majority support for it in various opinion polls conducted by different organizations. For example, in a recent survey conducted by Chinese University's Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, more than half of the public rendered their support to the co-location plan while only 29 percent were against it.

"Majority rule" is the most popularly understood and practiced principle of democracy. If the opposition still finds any need to claim they are working for democratic advancement in Hong Kong, they cannot just ignore the people's voice. With the constitutionality and legality of the joint checkpoint arrangement having been sufficiently expounded and proved by legal experts from both inside and outside the government, the opposition camp have no justifiable reasons to oppose such an arrangement.

(HK Edition 10/04/2017 page6)