TNAG-1900-FCO40-2699-Future-of-Hong-Kong-briefing-1989 — Page 77

MELAAS

CONFIDENTIAL

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CRITICISM OF HMG AND HONG KONG GOVERNMENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE

1987/1988 REVIEW OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT

1. The announcement in the Hong Kong Government's White Paper of

February 1988 that the first direct elections to the Legislative

Council would be held in 1991 was greeted with considerable

disappointment in liberal circles in Hong Kong. In the Legislative

Council Debate on the White Paper, a motion regretting the

Government's decision not to introduce direct elections in 1988 was

defeated by 42 votes to 7. Such motions are extremely rare in Hong

Kong.

2. One of the reasons why the Liberals were particularly critical

of the decisions in the 1988 White Paper was because they saw them

as back-tracking on earlier indications that direct elections would

be introduced in 1988. This fuelled suspicions that Britain had

bowed to Chinese pressure to delay the pace of democratisation.

3. Mr Martin Lee, one of the most prominent Liberals, accused HMG

and the Hong Kong Government of having "broken promises" they had

given in the 1984 White Paper to introduce direct elections in 1988.

This accusation was based on paragraph 25 of the White Paper which

states that

"the bulk of public response from all sources suggested a cautious approach with a gradual start by introducing a very small number of directly elected members in 1988 and building up

to a significant number of directly elected members by 1997".

Mr Lee also claimed that statements by British Ministers in 1984,

combined with background briefing given to journalists at the time,

had given the impression that there would be rapid movement towards

full direct elections. He cited in particular a statement by Mr

Luce in the Hong Kong debate of 5 December 1984 that

"We all fully accept that we should build up a firmly based democratic administration in Hong Kong in the years between now

and 1997".

CONFIDENTIAL