TNAG-1354-FCO40-1795-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 95

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organisation takes the statutory nomination and election

processes seriously, I am confident that good candidates

with genuine substantial connexions will be elected.

The generality of the membership of each organisation,

encouraged by their General Committees, certainly have

an obligation to ensure that this is the outcome. In

view of its bridging role between the Government and the

manufacturing sector, which I spelled out earlier by

reference to its statutory objectives, the Federation

has a particular obligation to take the election process

seriously, thereby demonstrating that

comprehended the importance of this new aspect of its

bridging role.

it

has

23.

I would,

however,

like to make two points

here. The first is that the functional constituency

concept is purely a mechanism for identifying candidates

for election to the Legislative Council who are

competent to represent the interests of a particular

constituency by virtue of their personal experience and

involvement in the functional area concerned. The

second is that the ultimate purpose of representing the

interests of a particular constituency is, of course, to

serve the interests of the community as a whole. The

underlying philosophy of the functional

concept is, therefore,

representatives

constituency

to

enable

the elected

of the various constituencies to

participate in the task of governing the community as a

whole rather than to protect their own interests.