romises made in 1984 to introduce ect elections in Hong Kong in 1988. In the circumstances we feel that it is necessary to bring this to the attention of the British people that all is not well in H Kong; and that if what we fear does materialize,
British the administration in Hong Kong will lose its credibility with the people it governs with the result that it will make Hong Kong pretty ungovernable.
Members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council
Jackie CHAN Chai-Keung HUI Yin-fat
Richard LAI Sung-lung
Dr Conrad LAM Kui-shing Martin LEE Chu-Ming, QC, Desmond LEE Yu-tai PANG Chun-hoi SZETO Wah
PETITION IN LONDON
Following the publication of the Survey Office Report, a group of Hong Kong citizens resident in Britain circulated a petition criticising the Report. This asks the Hong Kong government to instruct the Survey Office to take account of the 230,000 signatures submitted in favour of direct election in 1988, as well as the 110,000 individual opinions already counted (ie including the pre-printed letters). It further asks the government to re-evaluate the AGB McNair Survey, and to examine the merits of other professionally conducted surveys on the issue.
Finally, the petition calls upon the government to conduct a referendum on the question of direct elections in 1988, if it cannot satisfactorily
THE GREEN PAPER
As the period of public consultation on the Green Paper drew to a close on September 30, 154 organisations sponsored a rally on September 27 to support direct elections to Legislative Council next year.
the
a
Around 10,000 people attended figure some considered unexpectedly high, given the fact that Hong Kong has no tradition of political rallies, but which others considered disappointing. The speakers included members of the Legislative
Council
and representatives of different social sectors, including labour, the churches and education.
They called for the direct election of one fifth of the Legislative Council in 1988 the starting figure currently demanded by the majority of Hong Kong democrats.
The Victoria Park rally was the culmination of a series of public meetings, petitions and seminars sponsored by the Joint Committee for the Promotion of Democratic Government (see Hong Kong Link 5, June 1987) and designed to increase or identify popular support for direct elections.
The Joint Committee collected 220,000 signatures from citizens in support of direct elections in 1988. Though this is clearly no objective measure of support for elections among the population of Hong Kong as a whole, the fact that the signatures were collected in just two Sundays of canvassing was felt to be highly significant.
Justice & Peace Commission Hong Kong's Catholic Justice & Peace Commission published its position
paper on September 19. Its proposals went somewhat further than the 'consensus' stand of the Joint Committee. As reported by UCA News, the Commission recommended that 25 per cent of seats should be directly elected in 1988, rising to 55 per cent in 1992 and 75 per cent in 1996.
The Commission proposed that the number of Officials with seats in LegCo should remain stable at 10 in 1988, but fall to 3 in 1992 and to none by 1997. It also proposed to end the practise of appointing members to the Legislative Council: Appointed members would fall from 22 to 8 from 1988 and be eliminated altogether after 1992.
The Commission's approach to the functional constituency system will perhaps be seen in Hong Kong as even more controversial. Functional constituencies were introduced in 1985 and guarantee representation to a number of special interest groups including the banks, industry and commerce, lawyers, teachers, trades unions etc. At present 12 Councillors elected by functional constituencies: the Justice & Peace Commission's proposals would end this practise after 1996. Electoral colleges, which serve to select 12 seats for the
from Legislative Council
among District Board members, would cease to exist at the same time.
are
Finally, the Commission argued that from 1988 the President of the Legislature should be elected by its members; and that after 1997 the Executive should be accountable to the Legislature.
Polls
The stance adopted by the Commission
5
determine what Hong Kong's people think.
to
The British government is requested
the supervise
Hong Kong government's performance, and to ensure that no distortion of public opinion in the territory is reflected in official reports. Britain is asked to respect the will of Hong Kong's people and permit them to elect at least 20% of seats on the Legislative Council in 1988.
The petition was circulated in time for the visit by Martin Lee's delegation and will be handed in after the public meeting given by the Delegation for Democracy on the evening of Wednesday December 9.
is significant because it no doubt reflects (though not officially) the views of the diocese; and also because it appears that a high proportion of catholics favour direct elections.
This emerged from a survey conducted in August, which suggested that over 71 per cent of catholics support direct elections in 1988, whereas less than 14 per cent were opposed. The poll was conducted by 8 Catholic groups in 17 parishes. More than half of those polled wanted the Governor to remain President of the Legislative Council; more than half also opposed lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
There are polls and polls, of course
and dozens have been conducted during the consultation period. The most important those conducted by the government, as part of its official consultation have not yet been made public.
In Hong Kong Link 6 we reported a poll of the South China Morning Post which suggested that over 70 per cent of Hong Kong citizens supported direct elections to the Legislative Council at some date before 1997. Most of the polls conducted since have reflected the way the debate has developed in Hong Kong. As the consultation period evolved and it became apparent that there is virtually no opposition to the principle of direct elections, the central issue became focussed on the question of whether a significant majority of Hong Kong people support direct elections in 1988, when the next Legislative Council elections are due.
Taking account of the spread of returns, the polls have consistently suggested that those in favour of direct