submit this can be accomplished without rushing into new and untested political arrangements whose necessity and effectivenes is largely unproven in the Hong Kong context and whose acceptability by the public at large remains doubtful, at least in the short term.
Unfortunately, local and overseas media coverage of the reform debate has often given the impression that Hong Kong harbours a majority of suppressed democrats fighting for civil liberties and political freedom, but are not being listened to or accommodated by an autocratic and bureaucratic government. Alternatively, any delay in the constitutional reforms proposed by the democratic camp is portrayed as at best a missed opportunity to resist Communism in general, or Communist interference with Hong Kong affairs after 1997 in particular, or at worst as a "sell-out" of Hong Kong by the British Government. Both are plain nonsense but are being believed even byreasonably intelligent and well-educated people in other countries and have produced a negative image of a pessimistic future for Hong Kong after 1997 which has done, and will continue to do, a lot of harm to Hong Kong's efforts at internationalisation, and to our long-term economic interests. I am afraid that overall we have not done a very good job of selling Hong Kong abroad in the political arena, and left too much to individuals with narrow personal ambitions supported by a somewhat biased press to project a scenario of doom and gloom for the territory just because some people's political aspirations have not been accep.ed in the short term. The media industry, I am afraid, has a lot to answer for and would often benefit itself and the community by taking a less parochial, partial or defeatist view. Of course, pragmatism does not sell newspapers. But a more analytical approach to the existing reality in Hong Kong and a more global perspective to perhaps possible and would ultimately also sell. We certainly need a government in Hong Kong that is accountable, articulate, honest and open, both before and after 1997, and there are various alternatives to achieve and maintain this objective. I accept that not any one proposal for change will necessarily be the perfect or the only solution, but this is a fact our budding democrats will also have to accept.
It is perhaps somewhat ironic that quite a few among those people who plead for more profound and speedier changes to the political system in Hong Kong are members of our legal profession but who, on the other hand, have gone all out to opt for the status quo when it comes to their own professional activities. I am speaking of course of the controversy surrounding Government's decision to recognise the growing internationalisation of Hong Kong by proposing to also let Hong Kong-qualified lawyers be employed by or become partners in firms of
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