TNAG-1441-FCO40-1925-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 104

The Legislative Council: Behind the Scenes

To some people Hong Kong's Legislative Council is synonymous with government by the privileged elite, a part-time debating club whose Members meet for a couple of hours on Wednesday afternoons to nod through legislation at Government's behest before returning to their boardrooms and their boxes at the Happy Valley Race Course. But once you look behind the popular misconceptions you find the very different reality of a dedicated and talented body of men and women who provide the mainspring of Hong Kong's unique system of consensus

government.

The system

system of elections and appointments by which the Legislative Council is made up is carefully designed to ensure that the Council's composition broadly reflects the

the community from which it springs. The Council is made up of men and women from all walks of life and from every stratum of Hong Kong society including industrialists, business men and women, lawyers, accountants, doctors, engineers, bankers,

11

>

social workers, trade unionists, academics, headmasters, school teachers and manufacturers. The large majority, the 46 "Unofficials are appointed and elected from the community at large. Ten of its Members, the Officials, are appointed by the Governor from among his most senior Civil Service policy advisers.

fiddle

to

lives

Whatever their origins, Members increasingly find that their professional and private lives play second

their

as Legislative Councillors. The two or three hours spent at the weekly sittings of the Council represent the tip of an iceberg of which the major part is made up of committee work, meetings, speaking engagements, media interviews, meeting members of the public individually and in groups, and reading the vast mass

of letters, reports and papers which are issued to them for comment, discussion, information or action. Typically a Member may spend between 20 and 40 hours a week on Council business and related

related activites. Many will also have further commitments to the Executive Council, to advisory boards and committees, or to the social, welfare, sport, traditional, and other bodies which make the elaborate consultative system which is the dominant feature of Hong Kong's political life.

up

THE LEGISLATIVE FUNCTION

The prime constitutional function of the Legislative Council is to legislate. Legislation is processed at full sittings of the Council which are held every week on a Wednesday.