After straight-up rugby tackles and sounding rape alarms, shenanigans at Legco have taken another slide towards the schoolyard after a lawmaker snatched the phone of a female civil servant and ran into the men’s toilets.
Democratic Party lawmaker Ted Hui on Tuesday swiped the cell of a government worker from the Security Bureau and spent 10 minutes scanning its contents in the can, saying he wanted to find out how much information officials were collecting on councillors.
Pressure is now building on the lawmaker, known for his exaggerated antics, with police looking into the matter.
Hui has since penned an apology to the civil servant, who was left in tears after the incident, writing on Facebook that his actions were “not appropriate”
He however moved to justify his behavior, saying he found a lot of data related to Legco members on the phone.
According to reports by RTHK and the SCMP, the woman was working to coordinate support for a controversial bill drafted by the Security Bureau to allow mainland officers to operate within a special port area at the high-speed rail link terminus in West Kowloon.
The bill is currently before a bills committee and Hui complained the woman was monitoring the “entry and exit time of lawmakers” into the meeting room, which he suggested could breach the privacy ordinance.
The SCMP, however, noted it was common for government departments to dispatch officers to Legco to coordinate support for their legislative proposals.
Indeed Hui’s grievance has already been rejected by even his own party, whose chairman, Wu Chi-wai, noted such information was already in the public domain and vowed to investigate the incident.
Meanwhile, the Security Bureau has lodged a police report, with officers yesterday visiting Legco to investigate the case.
According to the newspaper, Security Bureau minister John Lee Ka-chiu, called Hui’s actions “barbaric” and “intolerable”.
According to Ming Pao, the Legislative Council commission — a group of lawmakers that handle administrative matters — held a special meeting this morning to discuss the matter and watch a CCTV recording of the incident.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the commission’s president Andrew Leung said: “Hui’s behavior not only brought shame to the Legislative Council, but also violated public expectations of lawmakers.”
He said that the commission agreed to send a strong letter of condemnation, and that another special meeting will take place at 2pm tomorrow for all lawmakers to view the clip.
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