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be taken into account; there should be mutual understanding and
accommodation, as well as frank exchange of views through extensive discussions.
The views of other parties should be fully attended to and one should
←seek common ground while accommodating differences.
The implications of the term again became the subject of a
heated debate in the meeting during which the draft constitution was
presented to the Drafting Committee's vice-chairmen in Hong Kong,
namely T.K. Ann, Y.K. Pao, XU Jiatun and LI Kwok-po. In view of
the differing opinions among the six-member group, XU Jiatun conserted
to another vice-chairmen's suggestion that the term should be retained in
the part containing the general principles but might be replaced by the
word "consultation" in the part containing detailed provisions.
Nevertheless, most of the attendants still favoured using the term
"democratic consultation". XU Jiatun and the other vice-chairman,
therefore, withdrew their suggestion.
The debate on the term hotted up. On a public occasion,
Simon Li described the controversies over the tera as "worries about
troubles of one's own imagining". LIU Yiu-chu who started the
controversy, however, pointed out that "democratic consultation"
could be traced back to the 50's when the Chinese Communist Party,
as the predominant party, consulted with the minority parties. implied the consultation between the elder brother or leader and
the younger brother or the people being led.
Finally, in the second meeting of the Hong Kong members of
the Drafting Committee, it was concluded that the term "democratic
/consultation"