Job No. 166880
HANSARD//JUL14:02
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 14 July 1988
1873
:
Members' Motion
DRAFT BASIC LAW OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
Resumption of debate on motion (13 July 1988)
DR. CHIU: Sir, as the representative of the medical functional constituency to the Legislative Council, I speak on behalf of my medical colleagues.
The cardinal principle of the Sino-British Joint Declaration is enbodied in the following provisions:
(a) 'The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will enjoy a high degree
of autonomy' (section 3 para. 2)
(b) The HKSAR will be vested with executive, legislative and independent
judicial power, including that of final adjudiction.' (section 3 para. 3) (c) After the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region the socialist system and socialist policies shall not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and that Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and life-style shall remain unchanged for 50 years' (Annex I, section 1 para. 2), and
(d) 'The laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be the Basic Law, and the laws previously in force in Hong Kong and laws enacted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region legislature.' (Annex I, section 2 para. 3)
The main purpose of the Basic Law is to truly and honestly translate the provisions of the Joint Declaration into law so as to ensure that the HKSAR Government will have legal mandate to materialise the promises of the Joint Declaration.
However, to the disappointment of many of us the principle of the Joint Declaration which I just mentioned does not appear to have been realised in the draft, although the phrases 'high degree of autonomy', 'independent judicial power' and 'independent legislature' appear repeatedly throughout the whole document.
For this reason, some people feel that the Basic Law, even in its drafting stage, has turned into a policy guideline to set a limit to the 'high degree of autonomy', hamper the existing independent judicial system and exercise political control.
Just like many other professionals, my medical colleagues consider some areas of the draft Basic Law as ambiguous, contradictory and inconsistent with the Joint Declaration. Examples are: