Reform, What’s Next? - 22 Dec, 2005

Get over it …
… and move head

Dear Subscribers & Friends

The government lost in LegCo yesterday on its electoral proposals for the chief executive election in 2007 and legislative election in 2008. Now what? Donald Tsang (DT) goes to Beijing next week … is a new package possible and what can local politicians do?

We offer our Christmas electoral package … www.civic-exchange.org/publications/2005/4TF%20Sub%20-%20E.pdf


A. What people want from politicians

1. Stop moaning: People don’t want to hear too much moaning, blaming and finger-pointing from government.

2. Stop being smug: People also don’t want the democrats to be too smug. After all, they haven’t changed anything for the better yet.

3. Reasonable and maganimous: People here want national leaders in Beijing to hear their wish for universal and equal suffrage to be achieved by 2012, and that 2007-2008 can be a stepping stone forward.

4. Be positive: So, everyone needs to show leadership quality and commit to moving forward.

B. Why DT’s package crashed …

1. Appointed DCs: People never forgot CH Tung brought back appointees to the District Councils after 1997 in order to dilute the people’s vote under the pretext of adding expertise to the DCs.

2. Corporate votes: Both electoral proposals contain corporate voters - i.e. giving bosses greater influence in the Election Committee and Functional Constituencies (FCs), which people never liked.

3. No timetable: People wanted a timetable, most prefer 2012.

4. Compromise offer: DT’s 11th hour offer to slowly phase out appointed seats on DCs was worse than expected since people thought they could at least be offered its entire elimination by 2008.

C. DT’s Sojourn to Beijing

1. Lets not huff: Hopefully, DT and Beijing will be statesman-like, make positive statements and offer a new way forward for this is the real challenge of political life.

2. New way: Whatever ideas are cooked up, they need to address the issues in B above.

3. “We still love him”: Beijing will almost certainly show its support for DT.

D. Observations

1. D-Camp: (a) If the democrats can truly work together (this is a big ‘if’), they need a new strategy that can deal with the problems of FCs and corporate voting, which lie at the core of reforming Hong Kong’s electoral system.

(b) They need to argue for not just (i) Yes or No to a package; or (ii) a time table; (these are only the lowest common denominators and are defensive in nature), but (iii) they must show how the system can transit from 2007-2008 to 2012 within the parameters set by Beijing (i.e be offensive).

2. PG-Camp: The pro-government camp needs to understand protecting the FC-system is a limited strategy because people do not like it. They too can think if there is an advancement on the government’s package that can address people’s concern with FCs.

3. New way?: Civic Exchange proposed a package that can be adapted by both sides. Here is the Christmas package … www.civic-exchange.org/publications/2005/4TF%20Sub%20-%20E.pdf

CHRISTINE LOH
Civic Exchange - HK’s independent think tank
For other publications: www.civic-exchange.org