Joseph Y. S. Cheng
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allowed the Chinese authorities to isolate the democracy movement as a minority (since a vast majority of the groups involved supported the election of the Chief Executive by a grand electoral college, with a timetable of evolution which justified the adoption of a less democratic political system in the decade after 1997). These negotiations also generated criticism of the democracy movement over the lack of involvement of the community, with whom they simply could not communicate effectively during the process. The Hong Kong Observers, for example, openly advocated a referendum on the draft Basic Law. 18 As the democracy movement refused to revise its position in any way, it was viewed as inflexible and insincere in seeking a compromise, since most other groups had made minor concessions. Nor did it have a clear stand on the referendum issue.
The movement's weaknesses were fully exposed in November 1988 when the Basic Law Drafting Committee's sub-group on the political structure of the Hong Kong SAR adopted a proposal by one of its co-convenors, Louis Cha, who owns the newspaper Ming Pao, at a meeting in Guangzhou. 19 Cha was supposed to present a compromise formula, but his proposals were more conservative than expected and were widely believed to reflect Beijing's thinking. The sub-group agreed that the first Chief Executive should be selected by a 400-member election committee, to be organized by a Preparatory Committee appointed by Beijing, and that the Election Committee would be expanded to 800 members for the selection of the second and third Chief Executives. The Election Committee would consist of 100 representatives from each of the following sectors: business and finance, professional bodies, labour, grassroots and religious organizations, and from among Hong Kong's elected public office holders, as well as local deputies to the Chinese National People's Congress. The sub-group also decided that the first (1997-9), second (1999-2003), third (2003-7) and fourth (2007-11) Hong Kong SAR legislatures would have 55, 65, 80 and 80 members respectively, with 15 (27 per cent), 25 (39 per cent), 40 (50 per cent) and 40 (50 per cent) of their members directly elected. In all four legislatures, 16 of the remaining 40 seats would be elected by the business and financial sectors, 12 by professional organizations, and 12 by labour, social service and religious groups. The sub-group agreed that a referendum would be held in the year 2001 to decide whether the Chief Executive and the entire legislature should be directly elected.
Worse still, Far Eastern Economic Review reported in December 1988 that in early November, when Hong Kong Governor Sir David Wilson had visited Beijing and held negotiations with senior Chinese officials, the two parties had agreed that the first Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive would be chosen in the early 1990s, though the candidate's identity would not be revealed until 19972°—which would make the first Chief Executive's election by an election committee a mere formality. Agreement had also been reached in these negotiations on the Legislative Council members able to serve in the first Hong Kong SAR legislature.
These developments reinforced the community's sense of political impotence and apathy, and the democracy movement's role seemed to be limited to that of organizing protests—a march to the local New China News Agency, a hunger strike, a petition,
18. The Hong Kong Observers, formed in 1977, was probably the most influential opinion group in the territory in the late 1970s and early 1980s, though it has become less active in recent years. It has a membership of about 60 to 70, and they are largely liberal professionals who were born in Hong Kong and had a Western liberal education. From 1980 to 1982 the author was its chairman.
19. Ming Pao, 21 and 22 Nov. 1988; see also Emily Lau, 'Maybe next century', Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 142, No. 48, 1 Dec. 1988, pp. 20-21.
20. Lau, 'Maybe next century', p. 21.