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Business circles and professional sectors should not be unnecessarily worried about direct elections. Those elected to District Boards and the Urban Council are mostly from the business circles or professional sectors and they should have faith in their own abilities and influence.
Some of those who object to direct elections to the Legislative Council would also play the 'China card', saying that China is against direct elections in Hong Kong. Such a conjecture is at variance with official statements by Chinese leaders. Recently there has been a new 'China myth' that the advocacy of democratization is aimed at 'countering communism'. It is merely a bluff devised by people opposing direct elections who, at their wits' end, assert that demands for direct elections are meant to 'oppose' China. They take advantage of the general reluctance to antagonize China and try to lead the people to oppose direct elections, meanwhile hoping that China will also believe it and exert pressure to stop the introduction of direct elections. Everyone knows that if China wishes to exert direct influence in Hong Kong, no one can stop her. Can a few directly elected councillors alone do so? It is our desire as well as that of both the Chinese and the British Governments to maintain the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. We should not lay any stress on 'confrontation' in our society or with China, otherwise not only the prospects of democratization, but also the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong will be adversely affected.
It is quite wrong of the Green Paper not to mention the many advantages of direct elections which we cannot afford to ignore when considering reforms of the government. I would therefore like to add some points:
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Indirect elections have many disadvantages. They are not in conformity with the spirit of democracy and would create political inequalities. Most important of all is that councillors so produced are accountable only to the electoral colleges or the individual functional constituencies. Under indirect elections, one can hardly expect the councillors to be accountable to the masses. They would just work for the interests of a minority of people, instead of the well-being of the society as a whole. Elections by the functional constituencies in particular would encourage enmity among different professions and sectors. The councillors so elected do not represent those beyond their profession or class and would have in mind only the interests of some special groups. It will not operate to the unity of all sectors in Hong Kong.
Elections by the electoral college, I think, may be adopted to some extent, depending on the pattern of local administration in the future, but elections by the functional constituencies should be scrapped.
Direct and indirect elections are completely different. If direct elections for some seats in the Legislative Council are not experimented with in the coming three or four years, we shall not be able to examine the experience in our next review of the system of government in Hong Kong, thus unnecessarily delaying the whole process for several years.
Here are my suggestions:
1. With direct elections, the councillors have to be directly accountable to the people in order to continue in office. In this way, the interests of the public are better safeguarded.
2. With direct elections, the candidates must win the support of all to get elected or re-elected. The elected councillors therefore will better co-ordinate the variety of political views and take care of all sectors.
3. Only a government based on direct elections is truly lawful, with its powers firmly rooted in the people of Hong Kong, and fully representative of the people to handle the domestic affairs as well as external negotiations.
4.
5. Direct elections allow direct public participation and also provide training for civic responsibility.
Direct elections encourage the politically talented and those concerned with public affairs to serve in the central council (Legislative Council), without the distractions of district board or regional council responsibilities.
The Green Paper has over-stressed the disadvantages of direct elections and avoided possible problems of indirect elections. On this I must also add a few points:
1.
3. Based on the step-by-step approach, the government should state in the White Paper on Representative Government that direct elections will be introduced in 1988 to elect not less than 20% of the seats in the Legislative Council. In 1994, the majority of Legislative Councillors should be directly elected.
The Legislative Council should develop from an advisory body to be the highest organ of power, directly accountable to the people and with real powers of finance, legislation and supervision of government. The chairmanship of the Governor in the Legislative Council should be replaced by a Speaker elected from among the unofficial members of the Council. The executive powers of the Governor and the heads of government departments should be shared gradually by the Executive Councillors. As for the desirability of the ministerial system and the system of combined executive and policy-making powers, it should be studied in depth in the next review.
To achieve these reforms, the Standing Orders of the Legislative Council should be appropriately revised, in addition to amendments to the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions.
Civic education is an important requirement for the implementation of these reforms. Civic education is necessary not only for the general public, but also for those in the financial circles and professional sector as well as civil servants who all need to have a better understanding of the democratic system and civic responsibilities.