TNAG-1722-FCO40-2415-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1988 — Page 113

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Job No. 166880

HANSARD//JUL13:05

1830

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 13 July 1988

I hope very much that our views will be taken seriously by the Basic Law Consultative Committee as well as by the authorities on the Mainland and given full weight.

Sir, I shall not offer detailed comments on the draft today. Instead I want to put the debate into a wider context. I ask myself what do the people of Hong Kong expect of the Basic Law? To this question I would suggest four answers.

First, the Basic Law must conform not only to the letter of the Joint Declaration, but also it its spirit.

Second, the Basic Law should build upon the reality of Hong Kong's present open system of Government, not upon the outmoded form of colonial rule that is set out in our present constitution.

Third, the Basic Law must be sufficiently flexible to allow developments to take place over the next 50 years as Hong Kong continues to grow and mature.

And fourth, although the Basic Law needs to establish the principles by which we shall be governed for the next 50 years, detailed policies should be left for the Hong Kong SAR Government to decide.

Let me elaborate on these points one by one.

My first point is perhaps the most fundamental of all. We recall the approval, clearly and decisively given by the people of Hong Kong to the Joint Declara- tion less than four years ago. The unique concept of 'one country-two systems, and the idea of Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong, caught the imagination. They won round those who had been sceptical about the outcome of the negotiations. These phrases are not to be found in the text of the Joint Declaration. Yet they were the spirit-the spirit of the Joint Declaration.

Parts of the Joint Declaration, for example, that which dealt with the future structure of government were left to be elaborated later. The Joint Declaration referred to a high degree of autonomy' without any definition of that key concept. So these provisions of the Basic Law must reflect the spirit of the Sino-British accord.

Power must be conferred on the SAR Government not grudgingly, but open-handedly, and without too many strings attached. The Hong Kong SAR Government and the Hong Kong Judiciary must be trusted to exercise their powers responsibly. It will boost confidence if the Basic Law clearly recognises that Hong Kong people know best how to maintain prosperity and stability in this territory.

It is in these crucial areas that the Basic Law will be found wanting if it does not fulfil the spirit, as well as the letter, of the Joint Declaration.

My second point is that the Basic Law should reflect the reality of our present constitutional arrangements which is in important ways different from the text of our present constitution in the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions to the