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groups and interest groups, who formulate their criticisms and
comments without the responsibility of the Executive, much as
the opposition party in a western democracy. On the other hand
government's advisers like ourselves, who are neither the
Opposition nor Executive but are considered as part of the
government machinery, present another form of input which the
Administration can use to cross check external contributions.
Such input takes into consideration public views as well as the
Administration's thinking and constraints and tries to offer
workable compromises.
With the introduction of direct election, it is highly
likely that external critics of government become a part of
government and thereby alter the whole nature of the existing
consensus style of politics, and would possibly undermine the
hitherto proven success we have had in solving most of our
problems within government.
There are some suggestions that there should be
partial direct election. In other words, there should be some
seats on LegCo to be set aside for direct election. Attractive
as it may sound, this would not be practical for it would
create a disparity between those who are directly elected and therefore could claim they represent the entire population or
big sections of it, and the other Members who are indirectly
elected and therefore could only claim to represent a much
smaller, at least in terms of number, albeit different
constituency.
I would therefore support the present proposal of
indirect election into LegCo, to be reviewed in 1989, when we
will have the option of direction election if we so wish.
May I now move onto issues which I regard as equally
if not more important, and certainly more urgent than the one I
have just dealt with.