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DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)
1989). After publication of the second draft there will
be a further opportunity to press for improvements.
8.
The draft Basic Law is not yet right and the Chinese
have admitted this. In particular, further improvements
will be necessary to the section on the future political
system. Significantly, the draft as it now stands
already provides for a fully elected legislature by 1997
(27% directly elected seats and 73% indirectly elected),
advancing to 50% directly elected by 2003. And it
acknowledges that the ultimate objective should be a
legislature constituted entirely by direct elections and
a Chief Executive chosen on the basis of universal
suffrage. But it does not envisage this happening until
2011 and 2012 respectively, and then only after the
changes have been endorsed by referenda and subject to
certain other rigorous conditions. In order to ensure
that the model for Hong Kong's future political system
commands the confidence of the community as a whole, we
shall need to press the Chinese to bring forward the
timetable for change and to remove some of the
preconditions for such change to take place.
Representative Government
9.
In parallel with our discussions with the Chinese
about Hong Kong's future, we have sought to ensure that
the process of development of representative government
is well established in Hong Kong before 1997, as we
undertook to do in 1984. The pace of change has been