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Job No. 166880
HANSARD//JUL14:08
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 14 July 1988
1903
are other articles stipulating maintenance of existing systems, yet they should not rule out the possibility of further development building upon the existing system. In short, if the Basic Law can impose as few restrictions as possible and allow maximum room for development, it will be the best guarantee and encouragement for the future of Hong Kong.
Above are my views on the draft Basic Law for solicitation of opinion. I hope that the people of Hong Kong will study this important decument in depth and conduct discussions so that an exchange of ideas will work towards our future.
Sir, with these remarks I support the motion.
MR. NGAI (in Cantonese): Sir, the Basic Law is a constitution for the future Hong Kong SAR drafted on the basis of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. I think that while we analyse and discuss the draft Basic Law, the following criteria should be borne in mind.
First of all, the draft Basic Law should abide by the letter and spirit of the Joint Declaration. This will include principles such as a high degree of self-autonomy, no change for 50 years, maintenance of the capitalist system and lifestyle, and maintenance of executive, legislative and independent judicial power, and also the power of final adjudication, and also the maintenance of the spirit of rule of law.
Seocondly, these articles must be simple, clear and direct, we should avoid vague wordings that are open to different interpretation.
Thirdly, we must emphasise fundamental principles and avoid dogmatic and inflexible articles.
Fourthly, we should follow our existing legal spirit and the terms and legal provisions at present, in order to avoid difficulties in interpretation.
Fifthly, since the Basic Law is to protect the interests of society as a whole, we do not need to emphasise the interests of any particular sector.
Sir, the first impression that the draft Basic Law (solicitation for opinion) gives me is that it is too wordy and repetitive. We have many policy articles which are inflexible. In some chapters we are given a wide spectrum of different views expressed by different sectors of the community; it is almost as if all views expressed were recorded. This might be because the drafters would like to take care of al views expressed and they would not like to give the impression that they were unable to maintain the present system, that is why even existing policies were written into the draft Basic Law. I think that a lot of these articles could have been saved or simplified. On the other hand, I think that the draft Basic Law has put too much emphasis on exercise of sovereignty, resulting in a conflict with the fundamental principle of a high degree of self-autonomy. Actually, the fact that China would resume her sovereignty over Hong Kong after 1997 is already known to the world; that is why we really do not need to