TNAG-1286-FCO40-16372-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong.-Part-2-of-2-1984 — Page 26

UMELCO RESTRICTED

DRAFT SPEECH BY HON LYDIA DUNN, CBE, JP ON UNOFFICIAL MEMBER'S MOTION

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 2.8.84

Sir,

The development of this Council since the Second World War has made it steadily more representative of the various

interests in the community it exists to serve. In one sense the

proposals in this Green Paper can be presented as having continutiy with that development, but really they represent a

fundamental change of direction.

2.

It seems to me that there are three guiding principles

behind the proposals in the Green Paper:

3.

first, that we should go along the road of indirect elections to start with, some members being elected

by "populist" bodies namely, the District Boards

and the Regional Councils and some from functional

bodies, yet to be defined;

second, that development should be progressive. In

other words, we should walk steadily along the road,

step by step, rather than take a helicopter flight to

the final destination;

and, third, that we should be flexible in our

approach. In other words, we should not try to decide now the precise pattern of long term change (and certainly we should not actually close the door

to, for example, direct elections to the Legislative Council and the assumption by elected members of

executive responsibilities).

One step at a time. It sounds very dull and slow and in

contrast to many other aspects of life in Hong Kong. But, so far

as constitutional development is concerned, Hong Kong has always

UMELCO RESTRICTED