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difficulties they would face as a minority in being able to
deliver results to their electorate. Sir, like in the case
of pregnancy I do not believe that a "little bit" of democracy can validly exist, and I suspect the motives of those who so readily sacrifice their ideals for a more immediate gain in
political status.
In his Address to this Council on the 1984 Green Paper, the late Sir Edward Youde made the following comments which we all would
do well to remember. He said: "Our system of representation
must give full weight to those interests on which our present position as a leading international industrial, commercial and financial centre is
based, and which are essential to our future
prosperity. All this argues strongly that change should be progressive, that it should
>
be tailored to Hong Kong's distinctive society
and circumstances, and that it should be based
on the well-tried systems which have served Hong Kong so well."
For these very reasons I have been arguing consistently for a strengthening of existing institutions rather than a jump into a new and experimental arena, for the development in representative government to be centred around a gradual replacement of appointed members in this Council by representatives from functional constituencies, in other words, a choice of Option (ii) in Clause 82, and Option (iii) in Clause 88 of the Green Paper, commencing in 1988. Additionally, Option (ii) of Clause 95
could be pursued, allowing for additional seats from those electoral college constituencies which are particularly large or diverse in character. Such an increase should be balanced
against the increase in the number of functional constituencies. An overall small increase in Council membership would of course result and should be acceptable.
Unlike direct elections, which must lead to adversarial politics, a system of indirect elections has the advantage that legislators