HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL -5 July 1989
2089
MR. TIEN: Sir, since the visit of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Hong Kong in April, the situation has drastically changed. The tragic events of 3 June to 4 June in Beijing have brought all of us into sharp contact with reality. Instead of an almost leisurely look at the future, we have come up against the real world. A real world that does not look very pleasant.
Instead of arguing about who will interpret the Basic Law, we now hear people asking whether the Basic Law is worth anything at all.
The Foreign Affairs Committee has to face not a legal, but rather a psychological question. This asks whether our sovereign state-to-be the People's Republic of China can be trusted to uphold what was promised in 1984. For if we begin with dreams we must surely end up with realities.
Sir, when Sir Geoffrey HOWE flew in last Sunday, he said "You have no stauncher friend than Britain." With due respect to Sir Geoffrey, Britain is not only our friend, but also our sovereign state. We are British nationals, born on British soil, we swear allegiance to the same Queen and her same heir as anyone born in Britain. Regretfully, this sense of responsibility was not seen in the FAC report.
I share the disappointment expressed earlier by the Honourable POON Chi-fai regarding the brief meeting Members of the two Councils had with Sir Geoffrey on Monday evening. He said he came to listen. I left that meeting feeling that his mind had all made up, feeling that he was not interested to hear anything we had to say. The fact that he left Hong Kong last night unwilling to hear 34 of our Members speak this afternoon on this issue further enhances that feeling.
Sir, democracy, so defined as direct elections, is no substitute for the right of abode in the United Kingdom. I reject the offer that our right to take up abode in Britain can be traded in by earlier direct election. It is a bargain which no trader would wish to accept. In short, it is no bargain. Although Hong Kong is full of traders, they would not buy this trade-in. Not at any price.
To give us earlier, premature direct elections will not keep out the People's Liberation Army. The tanks and guns could not be diverted with the vote. We should be aware of the limitations of this vote. The vote is after all, a means, not an end.
The British administration will depart from Hong Kong in a few short years. For them, it is far easier to offer us the shadow of democracy than to give us the substance of the right of abode. Hong Kong people need and want the substance, not the shadow.
If right of abode were granted, then Britain would be forced to make a success of Hong Kong. The fact of the matter is that the incentive to make Hong Kong a continuing success is obvious. The price of "failure" here simply would be the prospect of having something between 3 and 6 million Hong Kong emigrants. If,