XN000022-1996-02-03+04 — Page 14

· 13 -

-

Thirdly, what happens if there's no dialogue? Do the things which the majority in LegCo represent simply melt away? Do they just disappear all those beliefs and values and hopes? All that energy. All that commitment. The alternative to talking is exclusion, and exclusion spells trouble.

And what of LegCo themselves? They are today in a difficult position. Strong but difficult. The powers of the government and of the legislature are spelled out clearly in Hong Kong's constitutional arrangements after 1997. The checks and balances are clear. More democracy is promised after 1997, much more than there is today, but within clearly defined boundaries.

Today in the run-up to 1997 - the position is much less clear. We have the old colonial constitution but with the addition of a wholly elected and independent legislature. The main checks and balances are the good sense of all of us who've got to try to make the system work as well as possible for Hong Kong. The only way we could have changed all this, tried to make it easier for the government, was by trying to juggle with the election arrangements so that they produced a different and pre- ordained result. But we are all familiar with that argument and know where it leads.

I've believed all along that whatever the difficulties we could make things work. But the difficulties are substantial and there for all to see. Because some legislators fear understandably that they'll be frozen out of the political process in the future, they think that they should do everything they can in the short term to achieve their own goals or those of their supporters. They want to make their mark.

And there are difficulties for the government. Civil servants find themselves pressed harder than before to account for what they are doing; they find policies that have worked for years, and which command the broad support and respect of the community, bitterly challenged; they find themselves dealing with proposals for sweeping institutional change at a particularly sensitive moment in Hong Kong's history without serious public debate or discussion.

As I've said before, co-operation between LegCo and the Government involves some give and take on both sides - with both sides recognising, I hope. that we shouldn't do anything which discredits either strong, accountable government on the one hand, or the development of responsible democratic institutions on the other.