TNAG-2735-FCO40-3943-Hong-Kong-role-of-the-Legislative-Council-(LEGCO)-1993 — Page 54

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186.

Kong.

Administrative

We do not yet have full democracy here in Hong

But democracy is the road which the Chinese

Covernment has agreed Hong Kong should follow. The Joint

Declaration lays down that "the legislature of the Hong Kong

Special

Region shall be constituted by

elections". It also prescribes that the executive "shall be

accountable to the legislature." There can be no doubt,

therefore, that we are destined to be moving firmly in the direction of democracy.

187.

Let me tell you what I believe this democratic goal

It means that your Government cannot claim to

means for us.

be any

community

stronger,

any wiser, any more determined than the

itself. And in the last resort, it is you

all, you the

Ad

above

community's legislature, the legislature that

as the Joint Declaration says, hold the executive

it is you who set the limits to the

Government's power to protect and strengthen our system.

accountable

188.

Joint

elected

The democratic ideal (clearly enshrined in the

Declaration) means that the community, through its

legislature, makes the laws that govern it. You are

both the rulers and the ruled. That is why democracy is both a high privilege and a heavy responsibility.

189.

I say all this because I believe it to be true.

And I say it as well because I am growing to love Hong Kong

as you who have created it from rock and scrub love Hong

Kong.

And

I

want,

you want, to see Hong Kong as it

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