Job No. 166880
HANSARD//JUL13:13
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
13 July 1988
1867
And I believe the Chinese Government will have to accept that in order to ensure stability and prosperity there will also have to be continuity as well requiring some internal concessions. Articles 16–18, 21 and 169 of the draft Basic Law are cases in point. The proposed formation of the ‘Committee for the Basic Law' is another. The perception that such a 'clutch' is required not only underlines the weakness in the way the boundaries are presently drawn to separate the powers of the central and local governments, but also shows a measure of unwillingness to accept the fact that some constitutional authority must necessarily lie with Beijing.
Sir, I am also critical of the so-called 'through-train' label for the actual transition in 1997 which some of my hon. colleagues favour. It conjures up unpleasant images of a locomotive ramming barriers. If we need labels at all, I would prefer to use the term 'change of gauge. The new SAR Government must obviously be identified before I July 1997, and must be familiar with its responsibilities before it is sworn in. This suggests a readiness on the part of the United Kingdom to permit preparatory arrangements being made in the territory under the authority of the Chinese Government prior to the British surrender of sovereignty; but also suggests that the Chinese authorities must willingly accept British cooperation in these efforts. And there seems to be no logical reason why either side should have any real difficulty with this.
The problems that do remain are in the arguments still surrounding the method of selecting or electing the Chief Executive, and in the treatment of the incumbent members of the legislature. The Judiciary, fortunately, is to be simply kept on, a most elegant solution although all in all a bit surprising.
As a member of the so-called 'Group of 81' and for the reasons advanced by it, I am in support of the proposal to elect the future Chief Executives of the SAR through a broadly-based electoral college, representative of all sectors of the community and including the Members of the Legislative Council. Such a college could be established in late 1996. And it should be remembered that indirect presidential elections are a feature also in many established democratic countries.
On the other hand, I have never made a secret of the fact that I am not so much in favour of electoral college elections for a quarter of the seats in the Legislative Council, be it before or after 1997. Instead I would argue that developments after 1991 and the Basic Law provisions should aim for the replacement, in 1994, of the then remaining appointed members by members elected by functional constituencies, for them to hold office-like their directly elected colleagues—until 30 June 1997.
Elections of members of the first SAR legislature on the basis of the electoral model introduced in 1994 should take place two months prior to 1 July and comply with Basic Law prerequisites as to qualifications of candidates and terms of office. The new legislature could then be empanelled also on 1 July 1997 and face no difficulties with their allegiance, nor any other transitional
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