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Governor: I think if you've been a democratic politician you know quite a lot about losing face. If you lose an election, that's quite a lot of face to lose. And it's very good
let me tell you.
for you,
I think that what matters much more to me is what happens in the long term. Whether we manage to do what we're supposed to do in Hong Kong, honourably. Nothing to do with glory. What will matter is what Hong Kong is like in 1998 or 1999 or 2000. Does it still have a free press? Are you still able to ask the Chief Executive any question you want? Do our institutions of government still work? Do we still have a clean civil service? Are we suffering from problems of corruption? Does the rule of law still operate? Do we still have a vigorous and effective Legislative Council? Do people still regard Hong Kong as a free and open society? Because if they don't, it won't be as successful economically..
Those are the sort of things that are going to me my judgments and the judgments of Britain's inheritance. And whether or not you describe it as a glorious retreat, it's certainly that long term historical judgment which matters to us, matters today and will continue to matter. And that was a point that Malcolm Rifkind made very clear when he was answering questions from the Legislative Council the other afternoon.
Speaker: You said just now that whether or not there is a glorious retreat is not what you are most concerned about. But if I were to ask you this: if Britain wants to retreat with honour, I mean what are the necessary prerequisites?
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Governor: Oh, the necessary prerequisites are to have every assurance that the sort of Hong Kong described in the Joint Declaration, in the Treaty between Britain and China, is what Hong Kong is like after 1997. Hong Kong has been an astonishing success story. It's a decent, successful open society. If it's less successful and less open after 1997, and if people can pin some of the blame for that on what Britain has done before 1997, then we wouldn't regard our job as being done as well as we would have liked. But if you look back over the last five decades, if you look back at what Hong Kong has achieved in that period, I think that even the harshest critics would be bound to say that that had been an astonishing success story and I hope that the next 50 years are even more successful.
Speaker: When you launched your political reform package many people in the pro- China camp had suggested that for the past one-and-a-half centuries Hong Kong never had
any form of democracy. Why is it that in the final days the British Government is so keen to promote a democratic political system in Hong Kong? Some people therefore concluded that this is actually one of the strategies or part of the package of the so-called glorious retreat. How do you respond to that?