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6.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL 11 December 1984

That the Government arranges regular reviews of all the procedures for the election to and the functions of the Legislative and Executive Councils, within the framework of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

This Council urges the Central Government to accept these suggestions which are made keeping in mind that whatever is done must not endanger the continuing prosperity and stability of Hong Kong.

1:

LEGCO 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 Elected by electoral college: Urbco by Urbco members 2 4 6 8 ~- Regco by Regco members 2 4 6 8 (plus one more in 1986) HK Island DBs cica-2 agg CAR WWWWA * Kowloon East DBs 2* Kowloon West DBS طيران حي ا 12 14 20 22 New Territories East DBS 14 10 New Territories West DBS NNNNN Elected by functional constituencies 12 14 20 22 Appointed by the Governor Official Members 22 14 10 Elected by direct election by regional constituency: HK Island 4 4 4 Kowloon East 4 4 58 Kowloon West 4 68 68 New Territories East 4 *1. New Territories West 4 NOTES

APPENDIX II

1985 1986 1987 1988 1990 1991 1992 EXCO Elected by LegCo 2 4 6 10 12 Appointed by Governor 12 10 8 6 4 Ex-officio members 4 4 4 4 4 16 16 16 16 16 NOTES A ministerial system to be introduced progressively commencing 1986.

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MR. B. A. BERNACCHI seconded (in English): Mr. Chairman, I rise to second your Motion. My speech will not be very long, because it has to do with the future constitutional development of Hong Kong until and I hope, after, 1997. To explain, I have been striving since the beginning of 1949, when I was one of the founders of the Reform Club, to make the Government see that gradual constitutional development is and always has been possible and necessary. Only now is it being realized and still the Government, with only 12 years to go before, shall I say, the change of flags, is still dragging its feet, particularly in the matter of direct elections to the Legislative Council. However, at the end of 1984, it is for the younger members of this Council upon whom Hong Kong must depend for the future to take up this challenge. Therefore, I would like those younger members to be given ample opportunity to express their individual views.

The White Paper on the Future Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong seems to have been prepared in too great a hurry, possibly deliberately for publication before the recent House of Commons and House of Lords debates on the Draft Agreement or as it is called in China, Draft Declaration. This White Paper really only goes into the future as far as the next three years, and hurriedly proposes a change in the constitution in the Legislative Council by way of indirect elections of various kinds.

Paragraph 25 of this White Paper is itself ambiguously worded. For instance, and it is just for an example, the Reform Club, directly representing about 45,000 members and indirectly representing a considerably larger body of public opinion, proposed that there should be no hastily devised changes, particularly by possibly badly organized methods of indirect elections. That the Legislative Council should remain as it is until 1987, when there should be properly organized, direct, elections from the constituencies already established for the District Boards, the Urban Council and of course the future New Territories Council. This would mean next year District Boards Elections, the following year Urban and New Territories Councils elections, followed by elections to the Legislative Council in natural sequence, the year after.

Now, where does that proposal, (by a not inconsiderable proportion of the public of Hong Kong), come? If within the words of Section 25 'There was a considerable general public concern that too rapid progress towards direct elections could place the future stability and prosperity of Hong Kong in jeopardy', then I say that it is NOT a fair summary of the Reform Club's proposals. Of course, no one wants to jeopardize the future stability and prosperity of Hong Kong, but a systematic approach to direct elections, is not, as it is said at the end of paragraph 25, 'little support for such elections in the immediate future.

Personally, I do not want a White Paper that leaves everything but the 1985 Elections virtually in limbo until the review in 1987. I would like the Government now, in the next few years, to issue at least another Green Paper,