13.
8
But this still begs the question: what sort
of system of government should be developed? Clearly,
changing political circumstances dictate a need to
replace the existing system whereby the institutions of
government are manned via a system of appointments under
gubernatorial patronage
patronage with another system. But what
sort of system? After all, the Basic Law has yet to be
drafted and there can be no question of trying to
pre-empt it. However, we do have a starting point: a
high degree of autonomy, based on the principle of the
maximum possible continuity of existing systems, is
promised by the Sino-British Agreement for the future
Hong Kong SAR Government.
have, on many occasions, stated publicly that their
intention is to allow Hong Kong people to rule Hong Kong
themselves. This intention was reaffirmed as recently
as 29 March by Mr. Peng Zhen, Chairman of the Standing
Committee of the National Peoples Congress, when he met
journalists from Hong Kong and Macau in Peking. It is,
therefore, logical and sensible to start developing a
system which is compatible with and, as far as possible,
reinforces this promised high degree of autonomy and a
system which is self-generating.
Chinese Government spokesmen
14.
Now the essence of any self-generating system
is that it should be So firmly rooted in, and
accountable to, the community as to obviate the need for
external direction and
So
sensitive to geo-political
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