CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
Detail
6. Since I last wrote to you on 29 November about the political situation here, events have moved in favour of the CRC and against Martin Lee and his liberal supporters, although it remains to be seen whether this will last.
Standing Committees
7. The most significant development, in my view, has been the defeat of the Leong Che-hung proposal for a system of Standing Committees to monitor government policy and scrutinise legislation, and for the abolition of OMELCO ad hoc panels in order to emphasise the independence of LegCo from ExCo (see my letter of 20 January). CRC members have made no secret in public of their fear that such a proposal would transform the system from an executive led to a legislative led one; and privately they have told me of the immense efforts they made to ensure that this did not happen. While a number of CRC members (eg Selina Chow) were supporters of the Standing Committee idea in the early days of the debate, it seems that by about the end of October they realised that it would give the initiative to UDHK and from that point they back-pedalled furiously. The Arculli model is in practice a "minimal change" formula and as such is unlikely to have much impact on the shortcomings of the present system. This, together with the review planned for only should ensure that the issue remains a live one.
The LeaCo Select Committee on the Election Review
8.
Six
CRC have scored a further victory over UDHK in the composition of the Select Committee on the Election Review. of the twelve members are to be CRC members and Ron Arculli of the CRC is to be Chairman. Only 4 liberals are represented, of which 2 (Szeto Wah and Yeung Sum) are UDHK. The vocal Emily Lau is out; the pro China Tam Yiu-chung is in. The terms of reference of the Committee will cover only the relatively uncontroversial "technical" aspects of the 1995 elections. under pressure from the liberals, it has been agreed that the composition of the 1995 LegCo and the number of directly elected seats will also be discussed.
But,
9. Privately, the CRC make no attempt to disguise their satisfaction over the way in which Allen Lee outmanoeuvred Martin Lee over this; while Martin Lee is furious over what he describes as high handedness on Allen Lee's part. It seems clear that there were behind the scenes talks between the two men about how places on the Committee would be allocated, but when Martin Lee refused to compromise, Allen Lee went ahead and secured an outcome even less advantageous to UDHK.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
/ 10.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.