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successor, DENG Xiao Ping, is the same, even though he is now a very old man. I have always said the big mistake that the students, in 1989, made was to say 'Down with DENG Xiao Ping'. They should have said 'DENG Xiao Ping, you have been wrongly advised, we earnestly beg you to change some of your advisers'. Nevertheless, the way that the Tiananmen Square situation was eventually liquidated, was just horrifying and can be never excused.
However, amongst the present leaders of China there are men honest in their intentions to make the One Country Two Systems work. Outstanding amongst them is Mr. Lu Ping, and he is now the head of the Hong Kong and China Affairs Bureau. I am pleased to say that I count him as one of my personal friends. Now history has dictated that he is in the forefront against Governor Patten's reforms. His Excellency's address to the Legislative Council contained very many things which we, in the Reform Club, consider are very good to Hong Kong's future. However, some of the proposed matters to do with political reforms, we believe are against the spirit of 1984 Proclamations and subsequent Basic Law. For instance, the plan for the creation of 9 new functional constituencies, that are not really functional at all, it is certainly against the spirit.
All of these proposals should have been expressed long before 1984. The method of indirect election or, better still, direct elections, could well have been introduced, at any rate in the 1970s, as I personally said to Governor MacLehose in a private interview I had with him during the first year of his governorship of Hong Kong. However, he replied 'All the experts on China advise against it'. Now we have a governor who, only four and a half years before the handover, seeks to introduce such a system by the creation of 9 artificial bodies, so as to give nearly everyone, in effect, two votes, one in direct elections and one in these new functional entities.
The Reform Club also objects to the membership of the Election Committee as propounded by Governor Patten. In the Club's view, it should consist of all members of the District Boards and all of the two Municipal Councils. Also, this Committee should include representatives from other important sections of the community. Furthermore, we disagree with the proposal to scrap entirely the appointed seats on the two Municipal Councils, for reasons which we have explained in full in our recent release. Again, if only the Government had listened to the only two local political entities that existed in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s and even 1970s, instead, for instance, of tricking the Reform Club into not putting up members for the additional elected seats that the Government promised to create only if the Club did not put up candidates, because at that time the Reform Club held all the elected seats, and then creating an equal number of additional appointed seats, so that the increase in elected seats was almost entirely useless. Nevertheless, we do agree with the Governor that, as the District Boards are the Governor going out to the grassroots of the people and saying 'Please advise me', therefore, if he appoints members to these grassroots, he automatically limits the advice that he would receive from the ordinary people of Hong Kong.
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To quote from a letter that I received recently from England, from a very active member of the Reform Club when he was in Hong Kong, he says: 'Now that Britain is washing its hands of Hong Kong, he (the Governor) suddenly offers about four times as much as the Reform Club requested for almost 40 years and was told to jump in the sea. No wonder the mainland Chinese (Government) are annoyed.'
As regards LEE Kuan Yew's speech, I have heard it. He did not say there was a conspiracy, he said China believes there is a conspiracy that Britain and the U.S.A., wanting to change the system in China. I think and hope that this is not so, I personally think that the truth is the Prime Minister, Mr. MAJOR, felt a tremendous loss of face. Not only having to go to China to sign an agreement over the proposed new airport, to ensure that the airport would proceed, but that did not happen. Mr. LEE did call Hong Kong a pawn. I sincerely hope again that this is also not correct, but I do think that the initiative has come from London and in that sense Patten himself is a mere pawn. Nevertheless, he personally has visited from capital to capital, and afterwards some of the other countries have come out with statements in support of his plan. I am therefore very pleased to note that the British Ambassador to Peking has announced formally that the quarrel is between China and Britain only.
The Chinese Government itself has unnecessarily stirred up this quarrel more, by mixing up politics and economy. It seems this is being spearheaded by Lu Ping himself. However, in this respect, he himself is as much a pawn of the Chinese Government as Patten is of the British cabinet. Where it will all end is anybody's guess, but end it must, if Hong Kong is to retain the spirit of one country two systems. Most importantly are the assents and the assurance that the judiciary is to continue to be separated from the Executive and Legislative functions of the Government. This is essential for ensuring the true freedom of its individuals, the basic freedom of the people of Hong Kong which is entirely different from the rest of China.
Mr. Chairman, with these words, I support the motion.
CHAIRMAN (in English): Thank you, Mr. Brook BERNACCHI. You have exceeded around 5 minutes of your time. But with respect to your interesting presentation, I have indulged in allowing you to go on further. May I remind Members to keep the time limit so that we will not stay here all the afternoon. Ten minutes will be your time, but near the end, you may request your whole draft speech to be recorded in the minutes without really reading it out in the chamber. Thank you. So may I call upon the next speaker? Miss Cecilia YEUNG.
MISS CECILIA YEUNG LAI-YIN (in Cantonese): I have learnt much from over twenty speeches so far delivered by my colleagues in this annual debate. However, I am not too happy with the fact that matters discussed focused mainly on culture and entertainment, which constitute but a very small part of our municipal services. Other areas of municipal services vital to the well-being
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