TNAG-1880-FCO40-2671-Student-demonstrations-and-internal-political-situation-in-C-1989 — Page 104

level and they can easily grasp the operations of the Councils. 3. They

have a large group of friends having the same aspirations and common interests in the mass media and they have an edge in regard to publicity and making themselves well-known. 4. The whole middle class are awaken earlier and

they show greater concern for politics. The grassroot people's knowledge of political issues is still incomplete and their consciousness of participation in election is low. In general, they are of the mentality that 'it makes little difference who gets elected'. Hence, they are apathetic to elections and

are less involved. This will hinder

their representative figures from being elected.

If full direct election is · hastily introduced, the grass- root people can have only two options: 1) To elect middle-class personalties

to represent them in the Legislative Council. But when they find that

these people whom they think can represent the grass-root people only speak for the benefits of the middle-class even at the expense of the grass-root people (e.g. agree to the implementation of sales tax or wholesale tax), there is nothing they can do. 2) To elect the radicals who will promise the workers too much welfare which are beyond the financial capability of Hong Kong in exchange for their votes. In the event of a labour dispute, these political figures will stand in the front line, directing the people in the struggle, thereby catching the headlines and boosting their own political popularity. In contrast, those molerate grass-root figures who have taken the interests of the whole into consideration, will be

overshadowed.

In 1999, there will be 67% directly elected members in the Legislative Council, of which 1/3 comes from the functional constituencies. Among those elected from the functional constituencies, 2/3 comes from professional field and grass-root group.

That is to say, over 80%

of the seats in the Legislative Council will be controlled by democratic elements which can adequately check the power of the Chief Executive and reflect the opinion of the people. The existence of the functional constituencies will allow for different voices to be heard and avoid the

emergence of too much hysterical sentiment in making important. decisions. also enables people to compare different options and analyses and make

judgement in a cool-headed manner. Functional constituencies are

minorities but they may chime in with the main stream. They know very well the situation and trend of development within their own spheres and can provide sound advice and deep insight for the consideration

It