XN000022-1996-04-20+21 — Page 8

-7-

You can't pick and choose the bits of the Joint Declaration you like, and the bits you don't like. The Joint Declaration describes Hong Kong - economics and politics.

-

One part of the politics is the development of democracy which is meant to underpin Hong Kong's freedom and give its people confidence that they have their own future in their hands. Remember - Hong Kong people running Hong Kong. Not 150, or 400, hand-picked people running Hong Kong.

This doesn't mean, to quote another senior Chinese official, aping western democracy. It means developing open, accountable, representative government, just as is happening elsewhere in Asia. It is having a government which serves the people, rather than allowing things to happen the other way round.

We have the beginnings of democracy at the moment - as promised by China as well as Britain. And the question which is starting to singe confidence elsewhere, and maybe here too, even if it hasn't yet burnt it to a crisp, is whether that democratic development is going to be halted and reversed, and with it the best protection for Hong Kong's human rights, rule of law and good and uncorrupt public administration.

For many people this question of the survival of a cleanly elected legislation isn't an optional extra, it's a litmus test of what else will survive. And the way the issue is handled by Chinese officials raises not only questions about their intentions, but also their understanding of the nature of Hong Kong. Do they understand how a free society works?

Our free society has been reasonably stable and remarkably moderate. One reason is that we've tried, by and large, to involve everyone in the management of the community. There aren't some who are locked out, excluded, anathematised. If you do that to people, it's a recipe for social turmoil not community harmony.

ago

-

-

I prefer peaceful discussion to noisy demonstration. I hated that scene a week flashed around the world of a burning tyre and an angry group of demonstrators. I will never condone and always condemn rowdiness in a political cause in a free society like ours. But it is one of the oldest lessons in history, that if you try to shut people up who have a good argument and a good reason for putting it, you'll bring trouble down on your head.

I hated seeing our police having to hold the line between those who want to be heard and those who won't listen. We should avoid putting our policemen and women under that sort of pressure unnecessarily.

•