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„Kini
MON 26 JAN 92 16:54
PG.03
CONFIDENTIAL
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scrutinising policies they had helped to formulate. Leong sough an end to this relatively cosy state of affairs and the creation of a more independent role for LegCo. Although Leong strenuousl; denied that this amounted to a bid for executive power (stressing that the committees should have clearly defined terms of reference which did not fall outside LegCo's present constitutional role) critics of the proposal warned that it would lead to a substantial shift in the balance of power, away from executive led government. Allen Lee said as much publicly, and Rita Fan made the point to me in exceptionally vehement terms before Christmas (my minute of 20 December).
5.
In the latter stages of the debate, when it was clear that the Leong Che-hung model had attracted the implacable opposition of Peking, a new compromise emerged on 2 January, put forward by Professor Edward Chen. This involved the establishment of permanent (as opposed to ad hoc) Bills Committees, corresponding to government policy branches, with a review of the OMELCO panel system after a year. The main appeal of the Chen model was that it focussed on the immediate problem of how to speed up the scrutiny of Bills (which has proved to be a slow and inefficient process in the current LegCo). It left open the possibility of merging the OMELCO panels with the Bills Committees, subject to the outcome of the review.
6.
& Lui NCN
A minority of "pro China" Legislative Councillors, led by Tam Yiu chung, advocated no change at all to the present system. But, in the last few days before the vote on 18 January, they were prevailed upon by the CRC to swing their support behind the Arculli model, in order to defeat the more "radical" Chen proposal.
7.
The resolution of this issue will come as a relief to LegCo members, who have been feeling increasingly embarrassed and frustrated at their inability to settle their differences sensibly. But the narrowness of the margin of victory will have disappointed many of them and serves to emphasise the absence of consensus on the issue. Martin Barrow, one of the most active supporters of the Arculli model, told me a few days before the vote that he thought it most important that the winning model should be seen to command over 50% of the total membership of the Chamber. And it was Barrow who, after a vote which failed to achieve that target, proposed a "motion of reconciliation" which was passed unanimously with one abstention.
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