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seats in the Legislative Council, we must strive for a majority of directly elected seats in the future Legislative Council, and the earlier we have directly elected representation, the better.
I hope all in Hong Kong will share my views.
(Mr. L. H. KWAN left at this point—3.21 p.m.)
MISS CECILIA L. Y. YEUNG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I have some points to make on the representative government proposed by the Green Paper. Just now, many of my Senior Colleagues have expressed their views on some proposals in the Green Paper, I would not deal on the details. I will just express my personal opinion.
I cannot understand why direct elections are not in keeping with our tradition and risky. How can one be so sure that direct elections would run the risk of a swift introduction of adversary politics? A democratic country will certainly have two or more political parties which are indeed a safeguard against one-party rule or dictatorship.
The Urban Council is directly responsible for the provision of urban services in both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, serving the grassroots, and it is the Council in Hong Kong which first introduced elected elements into its fold. Should elected representatives be confined to the Urban Council only and not extended to the Legislative and Executive Councils? I think we must carefully examine this issue.
Some people in Hong Kong strongly advocate that there should be directly elected Legislative Councillors and they should not be elected by an electoral college. This will be a true democratic system, and irreproachable.
Paragraph 19 of Chapter Three states that the advantages of the present system should not be lightly thrown aside. But we are only asking for direct elections, without any intention of abandoning a good system. We only wish to improve upon it. We cannot be complacent with the present system and think that it is all perfect. Of course, we should allow changes.
The idea of functional constituencies is to enable those societies of clansmen, commerce, industry, education, finance, law, and medicine (I don't know if it includes practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine) to select the 'most able' (I accept the term with reservation) among them to be Legislative Councillors and exclude the general public. Is there any assurance that the system of functional constituencies will keep party politics at bay and prevent the rise of opposition parties? Even if universal franchise may result in powers landed in the hands of a small group of people, there is still no justification to shun it. So, I don't think we should have indirect election.
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It is mentioned in paragraph 24 of Chapter Three that Urban Councillors and District Board members have been appointed to the Legislative Council, but the powers are always in the hands of the government and the people have little say. Hong Kong has long been described as a show-window of democracy, but it appears that this is only a lame-duck show window.
Granted that universal franchise could usher in opposition parties, would their members be powerful enough to control the Council, considering that only 1/4 or 1/5 of the councillors are to be elected on universal franchise? I think members will be able to understand this without my elaboration.
As pointed out in paragraph 30 of Chapter Four, it will take time for people to become familiar with the new system, and to develop experience in its operation. Would it not be better to give the people more time? I would like to propose an amendment to the schedule. Instead of having six Legislative Councillors elected by the electoral college in 1985, they should be directly elected. This first batch of directly elected councillors will have twelve years to be familiar with the workings, and to accumulate the necessary experience. In 1991, the second batch of twenty councillors will join the Legislature and between 1988 to 1991 some of them will join the Executive Council. I submit that this would be a much better arrangement.
I would like to propose an amendment to the schedule, I think we should have direct election at an earlier date so that these elected members will have more time to develop experience within LegCo instead of guessing outside the LegCo.
I support the motion.
MR. EDMUND W. H. CHOW (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I have never believed in the idea of a perfect person nor system. The proposals put forward in the Green Paper on representative government are of no exception. I am, of course, not saying that it is better to have no system at all, but that we should try the various systems realistically to find out the one best suited to our situation. Factors affecting politics such as living habits and geographical conditions are ever changing. A political scene will not stay constant. It is intricate and complex. Tenets deduced from political development may be seemingly but not absolutely correct. History may not present itself again. How many of the rules which in the past helped to restore order and initiate recovery can be used for reference in modern times? How many of them may be adopted after certain modifications? These rules should, in fact, be changed according to circumstances and the consequences are only 'probable', not 'inevitable'. The factors of time and space are extremely important. At different time and space, people react differently. We should not ask which system is absolutely good. We can only ask which system will, under certain circumstances, lead to desirable results. Nor can we say a certain political ideal is sure to be correct. We can only say that it may produce good effects under certain conditions.
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