24
22 March 1989]
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE
RT HON SIR GEOFFREY HOWE, QC, MR ROBIN MCLAREN, CMG, and MR ALAN PAUL
Mr Lawrence
48. On that point, do you get the impression that China is less hostile than it used to be to the idea of democracy in Hong Kong? Is that because they are getting more relaxed and confident in their relationship with Hong Kong as negotiations develop and as the time moves closer, or is it because the Communist Party is getting stronger in Hong Kong and therefore better able to take part in an electoral process?
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I have clearly had the impression throughout the whole process of negot- iations that there has been an evolution of the attitude of the Chinese Government towards the prospect and fact of elections. I go back to the Joint Declaration itself where the idea of elections was only put in place within the last month of negotia- tions. I think that the Chinese began by being cautious in their view of indirect elections, despite that we introduced them as we have described; and they were equally cautious in their view about direct elections but again we have brought them into place, as we have described it, and we have now got to the position where the draft Basic Law provides for the legislature to be composed of directly and indirectly elected seats, and the prin- ciple of universal suffrage is now enshrined in the draft Basic Law.
49. If we are less worried about their resistance to democracy, is this not the time to try to get an early date for the eventual introduction of univer- sal suffrage as is portended in the new draft of the Basic Law? Is it not also an opportunity for us to try to get direct elections before 1991?
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I think the point to notice is that the pace of evolution of the system has been in line with what most Hong Kong people probably want as well. There is an awareness of China's opinion in Hong Kong and of Hong Kong's opinion in China. My impression is that what has happened has been an evolution of thinking amongst all parties, accepting the kind of pattern and timescale here set out. The evolution is still not comlete because there is the debate taking place about pace of change after 1997. I think there is a recognition by many people in Hong Kong that it is desirable to experience an evolution that is likely to be durable.
Mr Shore
50. On the practice of elections in Hong Kong, I was struck by the Annual Report for 1988 which showed that only half of the 26 indirectly elected seats on LegCo were contested. Have you any view about that? Also, as I understand it, the municipal elections turnout was very low where there was direct election. Does this indicate, do you think, that as yet the idea of direct election has not got as much widespread popular backing as one would have expected?
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I do not know that one can give a definitive answer to that. I suppose we can start from the fact that the turnout in local elections in this country is not always dramatically high. I
[Continued
think the other feature is that (I do not know- this is pure speculation on my part) with indirect elections, electing people from within a constitu- ency, there may well be a greater disposition to accept continuity of representation because you do not choose the President of the Law Society in a party contested election, as it were. The interesting thing is the extent to which there has been such interest by Hong Kong people in the structure of government. The scale of response to the Joint Declaration when we published that was massive and the tens of thousands of representations made in response to each of the green papers that have been published also creates a pretty high rate of interest.
51. To come to my summing-up question in this general section, Annex 1 of the Joint Declaration states that "the legislature of the Hong Kong SAR shall be constituted by elections." Do you believe that the variety of indirect elections and limited constituencies proposed by the draft Basic Law meet the spirit of that declaration?
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) Yes, I think they do. I think one of the interesting things to observe is the extra- ordinarily high quality of representative govern- ment that actually is to be found in Hong Kong now. It has got this developing balance between nomination election and in due course direct elec- tion. It is characterised by the absence of any party political structure, which I think has been a half conscious and half unconscious reaction to the environment in which Hong Kong found itself, living as it were on the edge of and in the shadow of what had been great civil conflict in China between the Communist Party and their opponents. I think the people in Hong Kong have been quite consciously cautious about the evolu- tion of a conventional party political system. Whether that was because of that or not, they have been fortunate in having very high quality representatives taking part in the structure of government at all levels.
Mr Rowlands
52. To be sure I am clear in my own mind from your answers, is it now the position that there is going to be no further progress to direct elections beyond the terms of the White Paper of February 1988, to be implemented between 1991 and 1997?
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) The reasons why I was focus- ing on what is in the Basic Law are because we shall need to bring the electoral system in 1995 into line with what was foreshadowed for the first LegCo under the Basic Law. So there will be change in 1991 and change in 1995 to take that next step forward along the lines I have been discussing, so that those elected in 1995 will be able to continue their term of office through 1997 as members of the first post-1997 LegCo.
53. One thing that struck me, reading all this about assessment officers and all the rest of it which you have established since 1984, is that it is almost as if one is shy of directly asking people in the most