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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

1988, it is not a matter of who wins or loses. If there is direct election it does not mean that China will lose and that Hong Kong people as well as the British Government will win because if there is no direct election by 1988, everybody will lose. The 3 parties become the losers. China loses people's confidence. The British Government also loses. I recall that the Chief Secretary had said that the Government had placed its recognition to this review.

Firstly, Hong Kong people also fail to fight for what they want. If there is direct election in 1988, it would be the view of most people of Hong Kong. Secondly, Hong Kong has estimated rightly since it had raised this issue and asked for people's opinion at this point in time. And thirdly China also wins because people in Hong Kong are sure that if there is no direct election in 1988, it is because China does not allow. However, if we have direct election in 1988, all people will believe that the Chinese Government's agreement has been obtained. This will improve the people's confidence in the one country, two systems and its belief that Hong Kong people would be able to rule Hong Kong after 1997. Therefore, whether we have direct election by 1988 is not only a problem of public opinion but also the present conflicts to be resolved. Finally I would say that the one country, two system in itself is a contradiction and at the same time is a unifying phrase commonly used in arguments in communism ideals. I am afraid that this will create a situation whereby apart from direct election, there would be further problems such as Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong, whether China is bigger or whether Hong Kong is of paramount importance. If we cannot resolve the issue on direct election in 1988 by way of mutual understanding, then how can we deal with future problems in future. It is a beginning and there are a lot of lessons to learn and we should solve the issue on the spirit of mutual understanding. Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.

MR. LEE CHIK-YUET (in Cantonese):—As regards the Green Paper on Representative Government published on 27 May this year by the Hong Kong Government, my opinions are as follows:

I.

Composition of the Legislative Council

A. Official Members: the present number of seats should be maintained in 1988, but should be progressively reduced and totally deleted by 1997.

At present, official members are appointed by the Governor. These ten members (namely one-fifth) can already effect significant influence with regard to the formulation and passing of bills by the Hong Kong Government. I think that heads of Government Departments should, on condition that the Standing Order of the Legco is not violated, attend the Legco meeting to elaborate on the content of a bill discussed in the Legco and explain the operation of the relevant Government departments. This can eliminate the constraint at present that queries on part of a bill or individual bills discussed in the Legco are not directly answered by the Government Officials concerned.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

B. Appointed Members: The proportion and number of appointed members should be progressively reduced and totally withdrawn by 1997.

It was stated in the Sino-British Joint Declaration that "The legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be constituted by elections.' Therefore, the post-1997 legislature of the SAR Government should not have non-elected members. Actually the responsibility and source of power of the appointed members at present have been queried by some people. Early arrangement should therefore be made to reduce their number so as to conform with the spirit of the Joint Declaration.

C. Members elected by functional constituencies: the number should be maintained in 1988 but totally withdrawn by 1997.

As it is difficult to set the criteria as to which functional constituencies are qualified to have seats in the Legco through indirect election, it will easily cause controversy among the functional constituencies and result in conflict of interests among different sectors. This also violates the principle of democracy as each member of the public should have equal right to elect and be elected.

D. Members elected by the electoral college: It should be maintained in 1988 and totally withdrawn in the long run.

The seats of electoral college should be maintained during the transition period lest the structure of the Legco should be changed too drastically. In the long run, however, direct election should be adopted to replace the two kinds of indirect election (i.e. members elected by functional constituencies and electoral college) to avoid overlapping.

E. Directly elected members: Directly Elected Members of the Legco in 1988 should not be less than one-fifth of the total.

Since it is stated in the Sino-British Joint Declaration that 'the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region shall be constituted by elections', direct election, which is a kind of election, also conforms with the spirit of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. If both the political development in Hong Kong and the formulation of Basic Law are based on the opinion of the public, and that the public agree that there should be directly elected members in the Legco next year and in the legislature of the SAR Government after 1997, then the Chinese Government should not and need not worry about the question of convergence between Hong Kong's political system and the Basic Law during the transition period. We believe that it will be more in conformity with the democratic spirit to have directly elected members in the Legco, and that a certain proportion of seats be filled by direct election in 1988 will not affect the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong's economy. The public should be exposed to the merits and demerits of different kinds of election so that they can make a decision before 1997.

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