Amnesty International has suggested that the Bill of Rights should become part of the Basic Law under which Hong Kong will be governed, and that Hong Kong should be a signatory in its own right to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Progress towards Democratic Representative Government.
We would not seek to hide the fact that there is some continuing disagreement in Hong Kong, and some uncertainty amongst our partners, about the timetabling of this process. The resolution opts for one of the possibilities, one which has the virtue of having secured the approval of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, and which has its own intrinsic credibility. In a letter to the Prince of Wales written recently by the "Hong Kong People Saving Hong Kong" movement from the Headquarters of the Methodist Church in Hong Kong, the demand is still that "a fully democratic and representative government be established before 1997".
The Right of Abode.
This is likely to be the most controversial resolution, but I am reassured by the fact that the demands coming from Hong Kong on this issue are unambiguous and uncompromising; the demand is for the restoration of the rights of citizenship which were unilaterally taken away from British subjects in Hong Kong.
The response of our Government is likely to be the offer of the right of abode to a limited number of people. Figures being mooted in the Press, both here and in Hong Kong, range from 100,000 to 300,000 itself a cause for further uncertainty deepened with every day which passes without any official announcement.
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I wonder whether the delay is occasioned by the recognition that any such scheme would be deeply, fundamentally flawed.
In Hong Kong such a scheme would be deeply divisive, and imposed divisions are something which Hong Kong people can ill afford at this critical moment in their history.
But the logistical and administrative problems of implementing it would be such as to ensure massive dissatisfaction and suspicion.
Who will make the decisions about which individual will be included and which will be excluded? What place will such a discretion make for for the exercise of undue influence or for patronage?
Will British subjects in Hong Kong have to apply for the right of abode perhaps filling in a questionaire about their own suitability. I am reminded of the story told by the Two Ronnies about how filling in a questionaire can sometimes be inappropriate and lead to misunderstanding. Mr Joseph Clancy, of indeterminate national origin, applied for the post of projectionist at the Kilburn Moving Picture Theatre, and at his interview he was told