CONFIDENTIAL
devalue the status of the Governorship, by drawing the
Governor into the minutiae of day-to-day LegCo squabbles.
It
Until 1995 the Governor is both Chief Executive and
President of LegCo. When in LegCo, he takes the Chair.
would probably be necessary to amend LegCo Standing Orders to allow the President to designate the Deputy President as
Chairman for those sessions, or parts of sessions, he wished
to treat as question time. (After 1995, when the Governor
would have no automatic access to LegCo, another arrangement
would need to be devised.)
- Alternatively the Governor, as President, could appear in LegCo from time to time to present and discuss major items of future business. The discussion could be
wide-ranging, and LegCo members encouraged to express their
views in the course of it.
- For these purposes the Governor could give up the Presidency of LegCo before 1995. The Letters Patent would
need to be amended and some formula devised which did not
imply the Governor was accepting formal accountability to
LegCo. But such a change would be a good preparation for
the relationship between Chief Executive and LegCo after
1997 and the Governor would be seen clearly as the representative of the Executive. An early constitutional change of this kind might be unsettling in Hong Kong, and the Chinese would be likely to see it as an encouragement to
legislative-led government. There is therefore a case for moving incrementally: first establishing a practice of the Governor appearing before Legco; then in due course standing
down as President.
- In addition, the Governor could meet senior
representatives of the main political groups on a regular,
but informal, basis to discuss issues of current concern to
LegCo. A consultative arrangement on these lines could contribute to "managing" the Martin Lee problem by bringing
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