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The 6/12
Towards the Democratisation of Hong Kong
Mr Galsworty, MKD)
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"Democratisation"
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The Grand Illusion
by
John Walden
A talk given to the Hong Kong
Management Association Seminar
"The Role of Managers in Tomorrow's
Hong Kong'', on 11 September 1985
ketts 57,2 The
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The title of this talk was suggested by the HKMA and not by me. I have assumed that the word "democratisation" refers to the political reforms in the Hong Kong Government's 1984 White Paper "The Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong" which will culminate with the election of 24 members to a so-called "representative" Legislative Council on 26 September.
As a sub-title I have added the words "The Grand Illusion" because I do not believe that the reforms proposed in the White Paper will, or are even intended to achieve their professed democratic aim of "developing progressively a system of government, the authority for which is firmly rooted in Hong Kong, which is able to represent authoritatively, the views of the people of Hong Kong and which is more directly accountable to the people of Hong Kong."
Cosmetic Democracy
I suspect that the main purpose of the 1984 White Paper was to ensure that the British Parliament endorsed the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the question of Hong Kong. But I do not believe that the British, Chinese and Hong Kong governments intend to allow the democratic reforms in the White Paper to lead to a situation in which the policies and actions of the government in Hong Kong are determined and controlled by the people of Hong Kong or their elected representatives either before or after 1997.
The "democratic" character of the reforms in the White Paper in my view is intentionally misleading. My fear is that these reforms could lead to a more authoritarian rather than a more representative system of government because the reformed government will not be subject to the discipline of public opinion.
In the first part of this talk will explain why I believe that the cosmetic democracy proposed in the White Paper was introduced in Hong Kong. In the second part, since Hong Kong people have no choice but to accept the White Paper reforms, I will put forward some suggestions as to what might be done to ensure that they do not lead to less representative government.