Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen has the patience of a Buddha, a temperament which may explain why he managed to chair the Legislative Council for nine long years.
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Those tumultuous years included the unprecedented anti-government riots in 2019, followed by the economically damaging Covid-19 pandemic, and yet he almost never lost his temper in public.
But even Leung got a little testy at a news conference last month before the end of the seventh Legco.
“If there were 90 legislators and more than 80 were re-elected, what would you say then?” The Legco president, who has announced his retirement, asked this question rhetorically.
He was, of course, being asked for the umpteenth time why so many lawmakers such as himself are not seeking re-election in December. Since September, mainly older – those above 60 – but also a few much younger ones have announced their retirement from the chamber.
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Speculation spread, conspiracy theories went viral. Was this a “political purge” by Beijing? Has a “blessed” list of approved candidates been drawn up by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO)? (The office has denied there is such a list).