Hong Kong's new legislature suspended a sitting yesterday amid noisy protests against the "rubber-stamp" body as it considered freezing labour rights passed in the final days of British rule. During the legislative session, Mr Leung Kwok-hung of the radical April 5th Action Group stood up in the visitors' gallery and shouted at legislators.
"The Provisional Legislature is a rubber stamp!" he cried. "Return the power to the people! Shame on the Provisional Legislature!"
Mr Leung's outburst surprised legislators, forcing the suspension of the session for about 10 minutes.
Two security guards at first unsuccessfully tried to remove Mr Leung but were unable to do so until two more guards arrived in the gallery.
Mr Leung was eventually taken away along with two other protesters.
It was the first time the Provisional Legislature - which replaced Hong Kong's elected version on July 1st when Chinese rule began - had run into public opposition during a debate in session.
Before the council meeting began, around 200 protesters presented a petition containing 13,000 signatures to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa urging him not to freeze bills, including one granting unions collective bargaining power.
Other protesters, including ousted former legislators, noisily opposed the Provisional Legislature itself, which they say is an illegal body.
Mr Lee Cheuk-yan, secretary-general of the Confederation of Trade Unions, told reporters that scrapping the laws meant "the death of rule of law in Hong Kong".
While the government was expected to get its way on most of the bills, there was also some opposition on the floor of the council chamber.
Mr Leung Che-hung was among the most vocal opponents: "With one sweeping bill, this administration attempts to undo all the lawful decisions that a former body decided," he told fellow legislators.
The protests also ended a hunger strike by trade unionists. Last week Mr Lee held a five-day hunger strike to protest at the move to scrap the bills.
Chief Executive Tung defended the plan to freeze the laws, saying they were ill-advised and hastily passed.
The Provisional Legislature was likely to agree to suspend most of the seven bills in question, mainly on labour rights, passed by the pre-handover elected Legislative Council.
Among the others is a bill to halt all land reclamation in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour.
Former legislators from Hong Kong's Democratic Party staged their own protest against the scrapping of the laws by hammering two blocks of ice into pieces to show their indignation.
Mr Yeung Sum, vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, said "it is shameful" to abolish the laws.
"There is no need to freeze the bills," said his colleague, former legislator Mr Ho Mun-ka. The Democratic Party, the largest in the territory, is not represented on the new body.
Mr Tung's government has met opposition from several quarters within the first weeks of its rule.
The democratic and legal lobbies are also at loggerheads with it over plans to deport thousands of children who arrived illegally from the Chinese mainland. - (AFP)
It was reported in Shanghai yesterday that two criminals have been executed by lethal injection, the first time China has used the method as an alternative to the firing squad.