TNAG-1357-FCO40-1798-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 143

- 4 ·

-

Britian's presentational problem was to convince the British Parliament that in endorsing the Joint Declaration and accepting total British withdrawal from Hong Kong in 1997 it would not be putting five million Hong Kong people under the direct control of a Communist state. The agreed solution was to give Parliament the impression that by the time the British left Hong Kong, its government would already be in the hands of a democratically constituted government of the Hong Kong people themselves.

1984 White Paper

Since most British MPs would be aware that Hong Kong did not already have a democratic government, a document had to be produced to reassure them that Hong Kong would have something of the kind by 1997. That document is the 1984 White Paper. Its enormous significance in smooth- ing the passage of the Sino-British Joint Declaration through the House of Commons and the House of Lords can be seen from the way in which the Hong Kong Government vigorously resisted pleas from many local organizations to extend the short time allowed for public consideration of the 1984 Green Paper and refused to defer the publication of the White Paper until after the signing of the Joint Declaration. The White Paper had to be made available to MPs before they debated the Joint Declaration, and it was.

Giving the British Parliament, Hong Kong people and the world the impression that Hong Kong was being put on the democratic road, with the consent of the Chinese government was a key aspect of the strategy of the British in ditching the Hong Kong people with dignity. And it worked.

Purpose Served

The 1984 White Paper has served its main purpose and this is why I believe that the democratic objectives it purports to achieve will now be gradually abandoned. Further political development if it takes place at all will be directed towards the less unstabilising forms of public representation such as the "democratic consultation" favoured by China.

Democratic Demise

Anyone who cannot see how the political thinking of those best placed to influence the future political development of Hong Kong is now veering sharply away from the basic democratic concepts of one man one vote, political parties, direct elections to the Legislative Council, devolution of executive power to elected ministers and so on, is simply ignoring the obvious.

In my view the 1984 White Paper is not just the beginning of democracy in Hong Kong it is also the end of it. The sooner that Hong Kong political idealists and political pressure groups realise this the better. As soon as the current elections are over pressure groups should abandon the narrow and unproductive field of electoral politics and switch their attention to the vitally important and virtually untouched area of public accountability.