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Sir, while studying in depth Clause 14 (2), it has
brought home to me a few home truths about Hong Kong. With
your permission, I would like to share them with friends and
foes alike. Many of our critics may elect to ignore reality.
If they do, it would be totally understandable, for truth can
hurt and furthermore, having to scale down their intellectual
aspirations to stark reality would probably hurt even more.
The truth is that Hong Kong has never existed as a
totally independent territory. She will not and cannot exist
in future as a totally independent territory. We survived and
thrived under British sovereignty as a Colony and we aim to
survive and prosper under Chinese sovereignty as a Special
Administrative Region. Our legislature, now or in the future,
elected or appointed, are and will always be subject to some
limitations. We cannot demand nor expect to be given powers
which are equal to those enjoyed by independent sovereign
states. We should not and cannot for example investigate into
areas of defence, national security and foreign policy. Clause
14 (2) starkly reminds us of this reality and no one should
harbour any illusions as to the reasons for our existence and
the route along which we must travel in order to attain
stability and prosperity in the future. The people of H.K.
cannot afford to be blinded by idealistic aspirations for the
full trappings of a western-style democracy.