small and so far very cohesive community that has prospered under the umbrella of consensus: drawbacks that will be incurred for the intangible benefit only of having a minority representing the public at large in a partially
directly-elected legislature.
The
No real effort was made by Government to analyse the pros and cons and to present a progressively expanding system of indirect elections as an additional strong option for public consideration. expressed public preference for having direct elections in addition to rather than instead of indirect elections by the electoral college was also simply ignored in the White Paper proposals.
By just reacting to the concentrated pressure on a single issue, I believe Government has let itself be pushed unnecessarily towards a deadline commitment and has missed an opportunity to act more deliberately, creatively, and decisively. At some risk to its credibility, the Administration has foregone the chance to design a
comprehensive and inherently consistent plan for representative. government based on the consultative system, and one that would be both practical and truly suited to Hong Kong's unique environment, in favour of just another short-term and impractical expedient. The result is not greater certainty as to where we are heading but added confusion and continued dissatisfaction across the whole domestic political spectrum. This confusion is not surprisingly mirrored in the difficulties experienced by the Basic Law drafters.
As we now shift our focus onto the Basic Law, it may well be that many of the recent deliberations of this Council will look superfluous in retrospect, and many of our internal arguments appear unnecessary and petty. Let us hope this next effort will produce more definite plans and clearer signposts for the future. Let us also hope that we can still also convince the Chinese authorities that it will be in the