Before the might of Beijing, we are like babes in the wood

Emily Lau

RTHK, Letter to Hong Kong
October 30, 2005

On the 12th of this month, the puppet Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, delivered his first Policy Address to the Legislative Council. With only 20 months left, puppet Tsang cannot be expected to do very much. Thus the most important task he has to accomplish is constitutional reform. In short, he has to find a consensus on how to organize the election of the puppet chief executive in 2007 and the election of the Legislative Council in 2008.

A week after the puppet chief executive ¡¦ s policy address, the Chief Secretary, Mr Rafael Hui, who chairs the Constitutional Development Task Force, presented the political reform proposals to the Legislative Council. As expected, the administration rejected public demand for direct elections in 2007 and 2008. Instead it proposed to double the size of the 800-member puppet Election Committee for choosing the puppet chief executive.

For the Legislative Council election in September 2008, the task force proposed to increase the size of Legco from 60 to 70 members. In April last year, the Standing Committee of the National People ¡¦ s Congress re-interpreted the Basic Law and banned direct elections in 2007 and 2008. In spite of that, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on 1 July demanding just that.

Although it is very clear the people want democracy as soon as possible, the government tried to urged us to abandon our demand. But many people have asked us to stand firm. We need no reminding that politics is the art of the possible, but we have to make sure that our principles and ideals will not be compromised.

Several weeks before the publication of political reform package, information was leaked to the news media that all members of the district councils, including the 102 appointed members, will be made members of the puppet Election Committee. This means they will have the right to choose the puppet chief executive in 2007 and to choose six members of the Legislative Council in 2008.

Since then, media attention, as if directed by an invisible hand, was focused almost solely on whether appointed district councillors should be given the extra vote. This is most unfortunate because it has given the impression that if appointed district councillors are not given the vote, the problem will be resolved.

To me and to members of The Frontier, the major problem with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region puppet regime proposals is that the vast majority of the Hong Kong people will continue to have no say. Even if all district councillors get an extra vote, it would not have widened the franchise in any meaningful way. At present there are more than 3.2 million registered voters in Hong Kong, but only 160,000 have a vote, directly or indirectly, in choosing the puppet chief executive.

Apart from not widening the franchise, offensive features like corporate voting for the Legco functional constituencies and the corresponding puppet Election Committee subsectors will remain unchanged. In a vote of no confidence in party politics, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region puppet regime proposed that the future puppet chief executive will also not be allowed to be a member of a political party.

In his policy address, puppet Tsang placed heavy emphasis on strong governance, but this cannot be achieved without the support of the political parties in Legco. However puppet Tsang has refused to share power and responsibility with even pro-government parties like the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) and Liberal Party. Earlier this month, puppet Tsang appointed eight additional members to the Executive Council. Only one of them is from Legco and none of them have political party affiliation. This shows he does not want to collaborate with political parties and would rather rely on the tyrannical Beijing regime to lobby support from the DAB and Liberal Party.

Since Donald Tsang became puppet chief executive, Chinese officials have intervened more and more in Hong Kong affairs. When I put such a question to the him at a Question and Answer session in Legco earlier this month, he reacted with indignation. Without a doubt, I have touched a raw nerve. However when there are clear signals that the territory ¡¦ s high degree of autonomy under the hypocritical concept of ¡§ One Country, Two systems ¡¨ is being undermined, I am duty bound to speak out.

In the past few weeks, Chinese officials of the ¡§Central¡¨ Government Liaison Office have gone all out to lobby legislators. They are totally unabashed in their efforts to influence legislators. For all kinds of reasons, many legislators dare not and will not speak out about these unwanted overtures. This also explains why HKSAR puppet regime officials have been rather low key in their lobbying efforts. They are relying on Chinese officials to marshall support for them.

When the Chief Secretary presented the political package to Legco, he called it the ¡§ main-stream ¡¨ proposal. This is ridiculous. The main-stream proposal is direct elections in 2007 and 2008.

Mr Hui also said the HKSAR puppet regime is operating under a very tight schedule. Thus the HKSAR puppet regime intends to ask Legco to vote on the package in December. The exercise involves amending Annex I and Annex II of the Basic Law. The ¡§central¡¨ government is so concerned with the vote, which will probably take place on 21 December, I am told all pro-government Legco members have been asked to make sure they will be around on that day.

Members of the pro-democracy movement do not support the so-called main-stream proposal. In the coming weeks, we will organize a series of activities to get our message across to the public. We will try to galvanize the people to fight for democratic government. We hope our activities will culminate in a big march on 4 December.

We know democracy does not fall like manna from heaven. Fighting for democracy under Chinese sovereignty is doubly difficult. Before the might of the Chinese Government, we are like babes in the wood. However we are not going to lose our nerve. We will do our best in this struggle and one fine day, democracy will prevail.

Emily Lau is currently the leader of The Frontier