Mr. Patten engendered a year ago, such a course of events is all
the more disappointing to the people of the territory.
Soon after Mr. Patten was named Governor, all 18 of the
democratically elected members of Hong Kong's Legislative Council
signed a letter to Prime Minister John Major in which we called
on Britain to allow at least half of the Legislative Council to
be democratically elected in 1995. We reminded him of Britain's
promise upon signing the 1984 Joint Declaration that it would use
the 13-year transition period before 1997 to institute a
democratic system of government so that by 1997, Hong Kong people
would have a genuine chance to rule Hong Kong.
We further stressed that without a democratically elected
Legislative Council, Hong Kong after 1997 would have no effective
check on the potential abuse of power by the Beijing-appointed
Chief Executive and no safeguard for the rule of law. The
appointment last month by Beijing of the working body to
establish the Special Administrative Region (S.A.R.) Preparatory
Committee
a de facto shadow government only further
confirms our fears of the type of unelected yes-men and -women
Beijing plans to install in the Hong Kong S.A.R. Government after
1997.
While Mr. Patten
rejected our unanimous call for 30
seats in the 1995 elections, he
democratically elected
nonetheless devised а series of reform proposals which he
announced in his first policy speech delivered to the Legislative
2