TNAG-2719-FCO40-3925-Hong-Kong-electoral-provisions-and-arrangements-1993 — Page 152

CODE 18-77

Martin Rickerd

SEAD

011/7

REC

'STRY

ker

Elections (85)

PRIME MINISTERS VISIT TO MALASIA, 21-22 SEPTEMBER : PRESS INTERVIEW

You ask for written answers for this interview. I offer the following for question 11:

1.

No question of "imposing" democracy on Hong Kong. In recent years the desire for a more direct participation in running their own affairs has grown significantly in Hong Kong. Clear from the response to the 1991 Legislative Council elections, when people campaigning for more democracy won nearly all the directly-elected seats (16 out of 18).

The Governor's proposals for the elections due in 1994 and 1995, which he set out last October, were made in response to this clear wish. Public support in Hong Kong for more democracy remains widespread.

You ask why now and not earlier. Essentially we have moved in response to public opinion. In the early years, and into the 1950s and 1960s, there was little interest in democracy in Hong Kong. We started building up elected representation at local level in the early 1970s.

And now, as second and third generations of Hong Kong people have grown up, the attitude to democracy has changed and developed.

So we are not in the business of forcing democracy on Hong Kong. As the Governor has said many times, one of our essential criteria for the 1995 election arrangements is that they should be acceptable to the people of Hong Kong.

k.

Launders

KAM Saunders

HKD

WH 311

3544

14 September 1993

1