【་་་་་
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
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14 July 1988
1921
age for voting at 21 by saying that the political sense of our young people is still immature; but we know that our political system will become increasingly open and our civic education will become increasingly common. It is difficult, therefore, to imagine that the political sense of our young people will not be improved in the coming nine years, and I am sure that the insistence of maintaining the legal voting age at 21 will face more and more pressure. So I think it is totally inappropriate to specify in the draft Basic Law the voting age. After all, the Basic Law will only come into effect nine years from now; we do not have to specify anthing on this subject at all; we can leave this to the Hong Kong SAR Government to decide according to the circumstances after 1997.
Sir, the draft Basic Law is a document offering a wide scope and one that has far-reaching results. There are a lot of points worthy of discussion. I have just spoken on specific problems. I hope that the citizens in particular our young people, who will be our future masters, will express more views on the draft Basic Law.
Sir, with such remarks, I support the motion.
MR. LAU (in Cantonese): Sir, the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1984 has been widely accepted by the people of Hong Kong. According to the Joint Declaration, the framework of the future Hong Kong SAR Government will be determined by the Basic Law. Therefore, whether the Joint Declaration can be implemented faithfully and whether the Hong Kong SAR can attain a high degree of autonomy will to a great extent depend upon the soundness and effectiveness of the Basic Law. Obviously, only when the Basic Law is in keeping with the spirit of the Joint Declaration and capable of looking after the interests of the various strata of Hong Kong will the confidence of Hong Kong people be maintained and the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong be safeguarded. The draft has taken three years to produce and it was finally released in April. Subsequently the draft was put to the public for consultation. Undeniably the draft for solicitation of opinions leaves quite a lot to be desired. Some of the articles are still highly controversial. But then a situation like this should have been expected. Actually, the Basic Law Drafting Committee is counting on the consultation exercise to collate public opinions for reference to facilitate amendments. Since the drafting of the Basic Law has much to do with the long-term interests of Hong Kong people, I would like to urge that public to size this opportunity to try their best to give their views.
Here and now I would like to bring up a subject that is rarely touched on. That is, whether overseas indigenous villagers could continue to enjoy the traditional rights they enjoy at present in the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Back in the '60s, in order to solve the problem of water supply the Government built a number of reservoirs, resulting in many agricultural lands being cut off from their water supply. Consequently, agricultural development
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