Are Hong Kong’s lawmakers also to blame over the seat belt law blunder?

Hong Kong’s U-turn on its seat belt rule for buses is a sobering reminder to lawmakers that they must meet higher standards even under the “executive-led” governance model recently underlined by Beijing, according to several policy experts.They noted that some lawmakers had been complacent, prioritising speed over efficacy in policymaking in a “patriots-only” legislature with no opposition presence, and would have to share the responsibility for administrative missteps.Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said in a seminar last month that the city’s executive, legislative and judicial branches should perform “on the same stage” with “coordination and cooperation” as key principles of its executive-led system.He stressed that the executive leadership required active support from the legislature and judiciary to achieve “strong synergy in governance”, while warning against any attempts to promote the notion of separation of powers.The dynamic among the three branches came under renewed scrutiny just four days later when the government admitted to a policy blunder in the wake of a hastily passed and poorly implemented seat belt law.The flaws of the legislation – drafted by the Department of Justice, overseen by the Transport and Logistics Bureau and scrutinised by lawmakers – were thrown into stark relief amid a public backlash from commuters, who complained about the difficulty of unbuckling ahead of their stops and children being nearly choked by the belts.Less than a week after the law was rolled out, the government repealed it after it became clear that the rule covered only new vehicles registered from late January, with Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan pledging to review arrangements and seek public feedback.