MELAAS
CONFIDENTIAL
B
C
CRITICISM OF HMG AND HONG KONG GOVERNMENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE
1987/1988 REVIEW OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
1. The announcement in the Hong Kong Government's White Paper of
February 1988 that the first direct elections to the Legislative
Council would be held in 1991 was greeted with considerable
disappointment in liberal circles in Hong Kong. In the Legislative
Council Debate on the White Paper, a motion regretting the
Government's decision not to introduce direct elections in 1988 was
defeated by 42 votes to 7. Such motions are extremely rare in Hong
Kong.
2. One of the reasons why the Liberals were particularly critical
of the decisions in the 1988 White Paper was because they saw them
as back-tracking on earlier indications that direct elections would
be introduced in 1988. This fuelled suspicions that Britain had
bowed to Chinese pressure to delay the pace of democratisation.
3. Mr Martin Lee, one of the most prominent Liberals, accused HMG
and the Hong Kong Government of having "broken promises" they had
given in the 1984 White Paper to introduce direct elections in 1988.
This accusation was based on paragraph 25 of the White Paper which
states that
"the bulk of public response from all sources suggested a cautious approach with a gradual start by introducing a very small number of directly elected members in 1988 and building up
to a significant number of directly elected members by 1997".
Mr Lee also claimed that statements by British Ministers in 1984,
combined with background briefing given to journalists at the time,
had given the impression that there would be rapid movement towards
full direct elections. He cited in particular a statement by Mr
Luce in the Hong Kong debate of 5 December 1984 that
"We all fully accept that we should build up a firmly based democratic administration in Hong Kong in the years between now
and 1997".
CONFIDENTIAL