A Separate ExCo
112. With a changed and much more representative Legislature, what are the options for the development of ExCo and for its advisory role? Among the various proposals which have been canvassed, there only seem to me to be two which are credible-first, a coalition ExCo, or second, complete separation of ExCo and LegCo.
113. The coalition approach was to some degree attempted after the 1991 LegCo elections. It failed to get fully off the ground. Perhaps understandably, confidentiality and collective responsibility were seen as too onerous a burden for some of the potential joint members. And for those LegCo Members who did join the Executive Council, the responsibilities of having to stand up for government policies at a time when they were competing for community support, and in some cases to found a political party, proved burdensome.
114. Besides these practical political difficulties, there is, I think, a more fundamental problem with the coalition approach. People often speak of the danger of turning ExCo into a mini LegCo, mainly out of concern about what that would do to ExCo. I am more concerned about what it might do to this Council. It would result in the transfer of political debate from the open forum of LegCo to the closed council of ExCo. What kind of democracy seeks to take open political debate away from the Legislature and shut it up in a confidential discussion hidden from the eyes of the voters who elect that Legislature?
115. In addition, a coalition ExCo implies the appointment of some people who have already been appointed to LegCo. It is no disrespect to those who have already served on ExCo with such distinction to say that this "double appointments" approach would in the future make a nonsense of our attempts to strengthen our representative institutions.
116. Taking account of these arguments, I have concluded that, at the present stage of our political development, there should not be any overlapping membership between the Executive and Legislative Councils. I intend, for the time being, to separate the non-official membership of the two bodies. This should allow both Councils to play their proper roles. In future within this Council, political parties and groups will be free to develop their programmes and platforms, without the constraints that membership of the Executive Council must impose.
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