FOREWORD
The year of the Agreement gave way to the year of the elections, and this Report records the work of UMELCO in its final year as a body composed exclusively of appointed Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils.
It covers the further mission and representations made to London, when the Hong Kong Bill was introduced into the UK Parliament in January; it also reports on the debate in our own Legislative Council in February about Britain's residual nationality and citizenship responsibilities towards Hong Kong's British Dependent Territories Citizens. But interest centred mainly during the year on preparations to place a substantial number of elected Members in the Legislative Council for the first time.
The enactment in April of the Legislative Council (Electoral Provisions) Ordinance 1985 marked Hong Kong's first step towards the establishment of a fully elected legislature. The new Session, commencing on 30th October 1985, will see 24 elected Members seated in an enlarged Legislative Council. The Council will occupy its own dedicated building, and the gradual transition from an exclusively appointed to a fully elected legislature will begin.
Understandably, there is pressure to quicken the pace of progress towards a fully representative government and to vary the present constituent factors. We shall all no doubt learn a great deal more about the performance of a representative legislature before the electoral position is reviewed again in 1987. In the meantime, however, it behoves us to proceed with care and not to pursue changes in such a way as to put at risk the stability and prosperity of our community.
The maintenance of stability and prosperity through the transitional period to 1997 and beyond must be
the key objective. It is based on this that we are promised in the Joint Declaration the status of Special Administrative Region and a high degree of autonomy, and the people of Hong Kong will look to the Unofficial Members of the two Councils to safeguard their future. With power passes responsibility and accountability and as authority passes to the elected Members, so will the legislature become even more accountable to the people for maintaining Hong Kong's stability and prosperity.
The Report closes a major chapter in Hong Kong's history that has produced the way of life we treasure and seek to preserve. It has been achieved through the energy and industry of our people in partnership with a stable and responsible administration. I believe our way of life can be maintained and enhanced further and at the same time, through the step by step approach, we can work towards the attainment of a fully representative government.
#ldung
SY CHUNG
Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council
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