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democracy. Hong Kong has long adopted the free enterprise system and people of all strata, including those in the financial and professional sectors and manual workers, have worked hard to make Hong Kong what it is today. In proposing reforms, the government should not negate or neglect the contributions of these people. There should, however, be a time limit for the systematic transition to an indirectly elected Legislative Council and this should take place before 1997, (iii) A healthy government should permit differences in political views and work in such a way that those in power are supervised by people of various circles so as to ensure that policy making and implementation are more reasonable and effective. There should be no fear of the so-called 'free lunch' candidates being elected. The political programmes put forward by candidates standing for election are sure to cater for the interests of all in order to gain support. Even if candidates with political programmes that only cater for the interests of certain groups are by sheer luck elected, there is still no need for fear because their number will be very limited. We need not worry about differences in political views and opposition parties. Candidates standing for elections may put forward their political programmes and compete fairly with one another. Everyone can stand for election and vote. China has shown her determination to adopt the 'one country, two systems' policy. It is better for people with different political views to express them in the assembly than through irrational social actions.
III. Specific proposals
(a) The government should vigorously introduce civic education and education on democracy to nurture future administrators and achieve true democratic governing of Hong Kong by its people. (b) When calling on the people to register as voters, the government should emphasize the significance and importance of elections and their implications so that the people will take an active part in community affairs.
(c) The White Paper should provide a long-term and detailed schedule of governmental reforms as well as listing in detail the Governor's relationship with the Legislative and Executive Councils and their terms of reference.
(d) As governmental reforms and the 1997 issue are closely related, the White Paper should state clearly how the two will dovetail with each other and what the relationship is between these reforms and the future basic law.
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(e) The White Paper should explain how power currently held in the hands of government officials will be transferred to the people. (f) To meet the wishes of the people, the government should start introducing reforms in a progressive manner. By 1988, not less than one-fifth of the seats in the Legislative Council should be directly elected.
Finally, let us hope that future governmental reforms will be more acceptable to the people, with the government consulting them on such matters, and in the twelve-year transition period, we will all work hard for the future of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
(Mr. SHUM Choi-sang arrived at this point-3.21 p.m.)
MR. FREDERICK K. K. FUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, on the question of representative government, there is only one form of governmental systems. in fact, the most important thing has to do is the spirit of the system as well as the objective of the system, and what sort of spirit are we talking about? Personally I hope that in the future political changes of Hong Kong we will be able to achieve a political system with true democratic spirit.
What is democracy? I do not know how to define this in theoretical terms. To me, democracy is a very simple thing, in the final analysis, democracy means that all the views of the general public will be able to be voiced in a community and in any democratic system everyone is equal and everyone is respected. So when we talked about democracy, apart from talking about political system, we must also talk about other aspects. Today we concentrate on representative government, so I am only going to focus on what democracy means in politics. When we talk about democracy we are talking about management as well as the relationship between the people and the Government, and when we talk about this relationship, we are talking two different aspects. The first one is how are we going to identify leaders and secondly, how are these leaders going to manage or administer the people who elect them?
In the present situation of Hong Kong, we are facing two different levels of changes. This is a reality, whether you like it or not, it is a fact and it is going to come true in 1997. The big brother of a political system that is U.K., will withdraw from Hong Kong after 1997 and the second reality is that sovereignty will be reverted to China and from 1997 onwards, Hong Kong people will administer Hong Kong. Facing these two realities, I would like to ask the following questions. All along the big brother has been appointing the wise man of our community, are we going to preserve this system? And after sovereignty is being reverted to China, China has all along emphasized the concept of 'Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong', what exactly does this concept imply? I think we are being faced two restraints. Firstly, to maintain a system where Hong Kong
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democracy. Hong Kong has long adopted the free enterprise system and people of all strata, including those in the financial and professional sectors and manual workers, have worked hard to make Hong Kong what it is today. In proposing reforms, the government should not negate or neglect the contributions of these people. There should, however, be a time limit for the systematic transition to an indirectly elected Legislative Council and this should take place before 1997, (iii) A healthy government should permit differences in political views and work in such a way that those in power are supervised by people of various circles so as to ensure that policy making and implementation are more reasonable and effective. There should be no fear of the so-called 'free lunch' candidates being elected. The political programmes put forward by candidates standing for election are sure to cater for the interests of all in order to gain support. Even if candidates with political programmes that only cater for the interests of certain groups are by sheer luck elected, there is still no need for fear because their number will be very limited. We need not worry about differences in political views and opposition parties. Candidates standing for elections may put forward their political programmes and compete fairly with one another. Everyone can stand for election and vote. China has shown her determination to adopt the 'one country, two systems' policy. It is better for people with different political views to express them in the assembly than through irrational social actions.
III. Specific proposals
(a) The government should vigorously introduce civic education and education on democracy to nurture future administrators and achieve true democratic governing of Hong Kong by its people. (b) When calling on the people to register as voters, the government should emphasize the significance and importance of elections and their implications so that the people will take an active part in community affairs.
(c) The White Paper should provide a long-term and detailed schedule of governmental reforms as well as listing in detail the Governor's relationship with the Legislative and Executive Councils and their terms of reference.
(d) As governmental reforms and the 1997 issue are closely related, the White Paper should state clearly how the two will dovetail with each other and what the relationship is between these reforms and the future basic law.
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(e) The White Paper should explain how power currently held in the
hands of government officials will be transferred to the people. (f) To meet the wishes of the people, the government should start introducing reforms in a progressive manner. By 1988, not less than one-fifth of the seats in the Legislative Council should be directly elected.
Finally, let us hope that future governmental reforms will be more acceptable to the people, with the government consulting them on such matters, and in the twelve-year transition period, we will all work hard for the future of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
(Mr. SHUM Choi-sang arrived at this point-3.21 p.m.)
MR. FREDERICK K. K. FUNG (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, on the question of representative government, there is only one form of governmental systems. in fact, the most important thing has to do is the spirit of the system as well as the objective of the system, and what sort of spirit are we talking about? Personally I hope that in the future political changes of Hong Kong we will be able to achieve a political system with true democratic spirit.
What is democracy? I do not know how to define this in theoretical terms. To me, democracy is a very simple thing, in the final analysis, democracy means that all the views of the general public will be able to be voiced in a community and in any democratic system everyone is equal and everyone is respected. So when we talked about democracy, apart from talking about political system, we must also talk about other aspects. Today we concentrate on representative government, so I am only going to focus on what democracy means in politics. When we talk about democracy we are talking about management as well as the relationship between the people and the Government, and when we talk about this relationship, we are talking two different aspects. The first one is how are we going to identify leaders and secondly, how are these leaders going to manage or administer the people who elect them?
In the present situation of Hong Kong, we are facing two different levels of changes. This is a reality, whether you like it or not, it is a fact and it is going to come true in 1997. The big brother of a political system that is U.K., will withdraw from Hong Kong after 1997 and the second reality is that sovereignty will be reverted to China and from 1997 onwards, Hong Kong people will administer Hong Kong. Facing these two realities, I would like to ask the following questions. All along the big brother has been appointing the wise man of our community, are we going to preserve this system? And after sovereignty is being reverted to China, China has all along emphasized the concept of 'Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong', what exactly does this concept imply? I think we are being faced two restraints. Firstly, to maintain a system where Hong
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