TNAG-2449-FCO40-3565-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 246

CONFIDENTIAL

Reference

C

Mr Ricketts

EXCO'S DISCUSSION OF LEGCO STANDING COMMITTEES

1.

We have not been told exactly what Dr Leong's proposals are, but the attached SCMP article gives a good idea of what they consist, ie, that there should be independent LegCo Standing Committees "shadowing" the main Government Branches; and that the Committees' main tasks should be to scrutinise bills and to monitor the administration's policies in their particular field. It is clear that this would provide a more systematic and rigorous means than do present ad hoc arrangements of examining government bills. More controversially, this approach reveals a more hands-on approach to government policy-making than LegCo has displayed in the past.

2.

Frue

She

I suspect that the legal quibbles discussed at the ExCo meeting are so many red herrings. Rita Fan says as much when she admits (para 10) that any legal problems could be overcome simply by changing the wording of the proposal. then points to the objections: that it is a ploy by certain LegCo members (ie, the United Democrats) intent on exerting undue influence over the administration. If they are allowed to have their way, he concludes, it would be a challenge to the present executive-led system. This is the same argument as Mr Allen Lee's, although he does not put it quite so clearly.

Lare

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3. I think in essence they (and the Chinese) are right about this.

The United Democrats have been arguing both before, and but particularly after, their success in the September elections that true democracy requires an accurate reflection in government policies of the views of a popularly elected legislate and preferably representation in the government itself. This argument lay behind their claims to be represented first among the appointed LegCo members and then on ExCo. Having failed to achieve this, close monitoring of government is the next best thing. The Chinese are, therefore, in my view right to see the Standing Committee proposal as something more than simply a procedural matter. For LegCo to set up Standing Committees is a procedural matter, but the political purposes behind the proposal are not. The crucial issue seems to me not the nature of the LegCo Committees (whether 'standing' or 'ad hoc') but the definition of their powers in relation to the administration. This latter question is not a matter for LegCo alone to decide.

PUBAAC JRB

CODE 18-77

CONFIDENTIAL