TNAG-2012-FCO40-2864-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1991-1990 — Page 41

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or AMELCO to be appointed for 2-3 years and for there subsequently to be an election from the general public to the post.

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One of the potential drawbacks to this proposal would be a further

A powerful weakening/erosion of HMG's influence in Hong Kong. Proto-Chief Executive could well undermine the position of the

It would thus Governor and make his position extremely difficult.

and need to be very carefully considered what powers were delegated in what stages. A possible advantage of appointing someone in the civil service initially could be that it would give us sufficient time to negotiate with the Chinese an election system which could mean that the person elected in say 1993 or 1994 could infact be eligible for election in 1997 and possibly succeed.

Development of a Ministerial System

An additional way of ensuring a greater degree of automony for Hong Kong people running Hong Kong would be to develop some form of ministerial system. There could be two main reasons for attempting

The first would be to to institute some form of ministerial system. inculcate some form of responsibility for the power exercised by LegCo members. The other would be to reassure the public that the Special Administrative Region government was not going to be entirely executive lead and that their views would be properly taken

into account.

The main problem with them having a ministerial system is that it would appear to run contrary to the general thrust of the Basic Law. The Basic Law states (article 48) that the Chief Executive will decide on government policies and issue executive orders.

Members

of the Executive Council could have a role to play as ministers. Article 54 states that the Executive Council shall be an organ for Therefore the taking assisting the Chief Executive policy making.

on of ministerial roles by Executive Council members might be

However it is clear from Article 72 that acceptable to the Chinese. the Legislative Council is not expected to have any executive powers. It is therefore unlikely that the Chinese would permit a ministerial system involving Legislative Council members to survive beyond 1997. This would make the usefulness of such an invasion innovation

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