TNAG-2713-FCO40-3919-Parliamentary-relations-draft-White-Paper-on-Representative--1993 — Page 38

Decision of the National People's Congress therefore have important implications for the electoral arrangements to be put in place by the Hong Kong Government before 1997, given the

objective of continuity and a smooth transition of government

institutions.

8. The review of developments in representative government

took place in 1987. It generated considerable public

interest. The Hong Kong Government published a further Green

Paper. After extensive public debate, the resulting 1988

White Paper concluded that although there was wide support in the community for the principle of some directly-elected

members in the Legislative Council, opinion was sharply

divided as to the timing of their introduction. The Hong Kong

Government decided to postpone the introduction of

directly-elected members to the Council until 1991, in order

to allow the changes introduced in 1985 to settle down

further. The White Paper recommended an increase in the

number of functional constituency seats in 1988 and the

introduction of 10 directly-elected seats in 1991.

9.

The events in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 had a profound

effect on Hong Kong opinion. This reaction in turn reinforced in the Chinese leadership a deep-seated mistrust of democracy in

Hong Kong. These events strengthened support in Hong Kong for a faster pace of democracy than that laid down in the 1988 White

Paper. In July 1989 the unofficial members of the Executive and

Legislative Councils (OMELCO) recommended that one third of the

Legislative Council should be directly-elected in 1991 (ie 20

seats) and not less than 50% in 1995 (ie 30 seats). This became

known as the OMELCO consensus. Senior members of OMELCO came to

London to press Her Majesty's Government to implement it.

10.

This posed in acute form the problem of how to reconcile the clear wishes of the community for a faster pace of

statememt26.8/BRIEFS/NJH

9