So if we could have the generosity of spirit of Mandela, the political wisdom and liberal insights of Alexis De Tocqueville, and the courage and restraint of Aung San Suu Kyi as our by-words, as our guides for the next few years, we would do jolly well and we would be an extremely civilised place in which to live.
Mr Choy Kan-pui (in Chinese): I would like to ask the Governor this: would you worry that in saying so you would be destabilising the community and upsetting Hong Kong people?
Governor: I don't think many people in Hong Kong would find the prospect of taking Nelson Mandela or Aung San Suu Kyi as a mentor a worrying or destabilising prospect. I think they would regard them as being inspiring people. So I think perhaps the honourable member and I have a different view of recent world history but I really would be surprised, particularly if he had read either of the biographies of Nelson Mandela or Aung San Suu Kyi, if he still regarded them as dangerous radical revolutionaries.
Mr Martin Lee: I'm looking at paragraph 96 of your speech, where you've quoted Jack London. I don't know whether you have the present LegCo in mind, which may expire sooner than you think, but if I change the wording a little, does it apply to your view of the provisional legislature?
"I would rather that it be stifled in dry rot,
but if it isn't then I would rather let its glow be
not longer than that of a meteor.
But as every atom of me feels sleepy, I'll just watch and do nothing".
Governor: I'd like to congratulate the Honourable gentleman on his literary output. We will look forward to his versions of The Call of the Wild and indeed White Fang and I know that his colleague, the Honourable Szeto Wah, will be able to help him in reading Jack London.
I spent a good deal of yesterday setting out my views on the provisional legislature and reminding people of the views of the British Government. I still find it curious that we have to deal with these united front efforts to pretend that there is some difference of view between myself and the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary and the British Government about the provisional legislature. Anybody who actually thought that I could pronounce on an issue as important as that without being wholly in tune, wholly in line with the British Government would know precious little about British politics or relationships in British politics.