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occupations. These groupings-geographical constituencies and functional constituencies can be adopted as the basis for the election of Legislative Councillors.
I believe that the reason for a Legislative Council with members elected by geographical constituencies and functional constituencies is: a highly autonomous government with Hong Kong people governing themselves must also pay attention to, apart from the problems associated with the Special Administration Region, such issues as the economy, commerce, industry, trade, and navigation etc. involving the Chinese Central Government as well as some foreign governments. Legislative Councillors must therefore have a good knowledge of public housing, social welfare and public utilities in the Special Administration Region as well as international finance, law and politics. In the public interests of Hong Kong, we should, on the one hand, have representatives basically elected through the course of 'one man, one vote' while, on the other, also have Legislative Councillors whose professional knowledge and expertise can help maintain Hong Kong as a cosmopolitan city as well as its stability and prosperity.
The third aim is 'to allow for further development if that should be the wish of the community'.
It is stated in paragraph 46 that the possibility of direct elections on either a constituency basis or a single, territory-wide list might also be considered in the review of the position in 1989. Many people from various circles too have suggested that there should be some directly elected Legislative Councillors by the end of the eighties.
Public opinions are unanimous that before 1997, there should be a stable and highly autonomous system by which the people of Hong Kong can govern themselves. There should also be a Legislative Council whose members are all directly elected and enjoy the support of the masses. At the debate on a motion concerning the Green Paper in the Legislative Council on 2 August, I vigorously urged all those who are in favour of direct elections to analyse and discuss in depth the direct elections on either a constituency basis or a single, territory-wide list as each approach will require different resources and produce different results.
On the other hand, the proposed election of Legislative Councillors by an electoral college would run the risk of offering too little and of uneven distribution. Often the District Board members too do not know one another well enough. Government should consider whether it is possible to divide the number of Legislative Councillors to be elected by the electoral college between Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories in proportion to their population and to allow the electoral college of each region to elect its own candidates to the Council. This will prevent the possibility that the Legislative Councillors (at least 20 by 1991) elected by the electoral college all come from one or two districts or councils and thus weaken their representativeness.
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In regard to the date of review of the position, it may well be advanced to 1987. The idea behind the proposal to conduct the review in 1989 may be to see what would be the effect of having 24 elected, 10 appointed and 10 official members in the Legislative Council. If the review is advanced to 1987, it will assess the reaction of the public in offering themselves for election and if there are candidates of large calibre interested in participating in the direct elections and whether the best are elected.
Sir, with these words, I support the motion.
MR. PETER C. K. CHAN (in English):—Mr. Chairman, much has been said about this GREEN PAPER since its publication. All that I want to do is to state my position again on the question of DIRECT ELECTION.
I advocate for DIRECT ELECTION to Legislative Council in 1988 and I am not accepting the argument that this will bring harmful effect to Hong Kong.
As to the number of seats to be available for DIRECT ELECTION in 1988, the decision will have to be made in 1987 upon reviewing the degree of success or failure of the INDIRECT ELECTION of 1985.
Democracy is not the best form of government, but so many others are so much worse.
In the Asian context, examples of so-called full democracy were not very attractive to many, but to use this as a pretext to suppress people from electing their representatives to air their grievances and to suggest necessary reform will also create problems.
Hong Kong is a unique place in the world. The style of democracy for Hong Kong must also be unique. We must keep on searching and researching for the particular style of democracy that suits this unique place.
We may have to keep on experimenting this direct and indirect election to find the suitable solution which is acceptable to the Hong Kong people and capable of maintaining the stability and prosperity of the Territory and consequently be acceptable to those who are very concerned with our well being.
With these words, I support the motion before Council.
ADJOURNMENT 4.55 p.m.
CHAIRMAN (in English):-The Council stands adjourned until Tuesday, 6 September 1984 at 2.30 p.m., at which time debate will resume.
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