******************************************************
Following is a speech entitled "The Future Role of Hong Kong in the Region" delivered by the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang at the Wilton Park Conference on November 3 (UK time):
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you Colin for your opening remarks, and thank you all for the warm welcome. Thank you also for allowing me to kick off the proceedings for this conference on the future of Hong Kong in such a respected forum as Wilton Park.
As you might expect from the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, I do believe that Hong Kong has a bright future. And I do believe that your discussions over the next three days will attest to that assessment.
But I am equally sure there are many varied views on how we can ensure that Hong Kong does indeed have a bright future, and continues to develop in a stable and sustainable way over the next 10, 20, 30 years and beyond.
Economically, I feel Hong Kong is on the threshold of a new stage of development and prosperity. We endured a painful economic restructuring, exacerbated by the Asian financial crisis, and have emerged all the more stronger and competitive for the experience. We are boosting economic, government and social links with the ¡¥factory of the world¡¦ across the boundary in the Pearl River Delta, where every day more than US$300 million worth of goods are produced for export to all corners of the globe ¡V much of it by Hong Kong-linked enterprises. We are setting our sights on becoming the predominant services centre, especially financial services and business-related services, for a south China common market of 460 million people, that we call the Pan PRD. We are deepening our role as the key base for multi-national corporations in Asia.
All of these elements augur extremely well for the future of Hong Kong. Indeed, many on the speakers' roster for this Conference have a great depth of knowledge about Hong Kong and, I would say also, a great love for our city. I am sure that, despite our personal differences, they are as committed as I am to making Hong Kong a superb place to live and do business ¡V truly, Asia¡¦s world city.
Today, I want to focus on one topic that is in the news in Hong Kong now, but which has a great bearing on our future, and that is the question of political reform in Hong Kong.
There is no denying that Hong Kong and Britain share a common past. The institutional legacy of British administration is, to a large extent, what sets us apart in Asia, and in particular within our own nation, China. By this I mean the rights and freedoms we enjoy, and the free-wheeling capitalist system that has been honed and refined in the decades since World War II. Free speech, a free and open media, freedom of belief, freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of assembly ¡V these are just some of the freedoms we enjoy and cherish. These are entrenched in our constitutional development, the Basic Law and the British common law system that is the cornerstone of our success as an international city.
While we do share a common past, there is no doubt also that Hong Kong's future ¡V then and now ¡V has always been inextricably linked to that of China. The relationship between Hong Kong and Britain changed forever on July 1, 1997. When once we had the benign hand of London guiding the way, now we have the Basic Law as our roadmap for the future. The Basic Law protects all of those elements that I know are important to British business and the British people ¡V our capitalist system, our low tax policies, our clean and efficient civil service, the free flow of information, and a level playing field for business. These are the foundations of our past and future success. They allow us to play to our strengths in the international arena. They define our role as a Special Administrative Region of China. They set us apart in Asia. We espouse them. We will vigorously protect them.
Political development is also an integral part of the Basic Law. As one of the signatories to the Sino-British Joint Declaration, I know that Britain still retains a very keen interest in our development. Political reform is no exception. I believe our political development is of interest generally to the international community because many see it as a litmus test for 'One Country, Two Systems' and our promised high degree of autonomy under the Basic Law.
Viewed from afar ¡V even in such esteemed and knowledgeable company ¡V it is often difficult to get a full picture of what is happening on an issue as complicated as political development in a tiny place like Hong Kong that is half-way around the world. So, today I want to provide some insight and context into how the political development process is working in Hong Kong ¡V and what the future holds in this regard.
I know there are some people in Hong Kong ¡V indeed, some people in this room ¡V who say that political development is not that complicated; that all we need to do is introduce one man, one vote and voila! ¡V instant democracy. It is not that simple. The UK¡¦s long history of democratic evolution is an example of the complexity of this process. In addition, there is no one-size-fits-all model for democracy. Every democratic system in every country is different.
Hong Kong has followed a unique trajectory of democratic development. In many other societies, democracy spawns the rule of law, liberty, human rights, economic development and a government that serves the well being of the people.
In Hong Kong, all these goodies have been well entrenched before the introduction of a fully-fledged democratic system, and these goodies have been exercised to the full, no less favourably than the most advanced economies in the world. This unique situation is the outcome of our distinct path of development and our unparallelled international setting. Because of this unique character, a majority of people in Hong Kong are adamant that our road to universal suffrage be sustainable.
In that regard, we must be allowed to find our own way forward, in our own time, and with a formula that works for our community and our country. That is what we are doing.
To be sustainable, Hong Kong's democratic development must be accompanied by faithful implementation of the Basic Law, the preservation of a good relationship with the Central People's Government, political stability, effective governance, the maintenance of liberties, the protection of human rights, particularly the rights of those holding minority views, the retention of a favorable investment environment, a low tax regime and the prevention of excessive populism. Indeed, Hong Kong people demand that the Government take a cautious and incremental approach towards democratization.
Personally, I support universal suffrage for Hong Kong as early as possible. Hong Kong people are educated and sophisticated enough to elect their own political leaders. And while I will do my best to make our system as representative as possible, I must also operate within certain legal and political parameters and having full regard to the present day circumstances in Hong Kong.
Legally, the Basic Law sets out the timetable and structure of political development for the first decade after 1997. We have had three legislative elections since 1997. Every time, we have increased the number of directly elected seats. These three elections were hotly contested by candidates of all political persuasions. We have more democracy now than we ever had during British administration. And I am firmly committed to ensuring that this process of political development continues in Hong Kong. The next opportunities are the 2007 Chief Executive election and the 2008 Legislative Council election.
The Basic Law also provides a mechanism to change our electoral methods after 2007. Any changes must be in a gradual and orderly manner. The changes must have the express support of two-thirds of the legislature, the incumbent Chief Executive, and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The ultimate aim is universal suffrage ¡V for both the elections of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council.
In accordance with our Basic Law, our sovereign government defined last year the scope of the changes allowed for the next election of the Chief Executive in 2007 and the next election of our Legislative Council in 2008. While they laid down the ground rules for what is possible and what is not, they provided enough room for advancement towards universal suffrage in the next set of elections. Their decision is legally and constitutionally binding. We must abide by it.
It is only natural that our sovereign takes a close interest in our political development. I see nothing unusual in that. Indeed, it would be irresponsible for any sovereign not to take a very close interest in the constitutional development of its regional governments. Hong Kong cannot act unilaterally in this regard, although some people, naively in my view, believe we can and should. But, they seem to have forgotten that Hong Kong is a part of China. Our political development is as much a national issue as it is an issue for Hong Kong.
At the same time, our sovereign is determined to uphold the Basic Law, including the specific provisions on Hong Kong¡¦s political development. She has acted faithfully, responsibly and transparently in this regard since the enactment of the Basic Law. Universal suffrage remains an established policy and constitutional commitment of the nation as a whole. My job as Chief Executive is to work within all of the constitutional parameters and devise a set of proposals for change that are acceptable to our sovereign, to our legislature, and to the people of Hong Kong.
Another vitally important issue we must address is the type of political system we want for Hong Kong, and how to develop it. You only have to look around the world to see that there is no one-size-fits-all model for democracy. The principle is the same, but the practice is different. What¡¦s good for the UK, the US or Sweden; or Japan, Singapore or South Korea is not necessarily suited to Hong Kong.
Indeed, we are starting the whole process rather late. We had our first elections to the legislature only in 1991. Before that, all members were appointed by the British administration, including the Governor who was appointed by London. We have also inherited a structure that incorporates people elected in geographical constituencies, and those elected in functional constituencies representing important sectors such as the labour unions, chambers of commerce, health services, social welfare, industry, manufacturing, financial services and even rural communities. These functional constituencies represent powerful interests in the community, and are entrenched in our political system. They cannot easily be expunged or cancelled at will.
For the Chief Executive election, it is fairly clear what we mean by universal suffrage ¡V that is, every voter having a chance to elect the leader of the Hong Kong SAR. But for the legislature, the Basic Law is silent on how we are to achieve universal suffrage.
For example, do we stick with our uni-cameral system, or do we move towards a bi-cameral system prevalent in most advanced democracies? Do we retain the functional constituencies? If we don't, how can we phase them out without arousing a long, drawn out political upheaval and uncertainty, that may even entail serious economic consequences? Do we look to the bicameral Congressional system in the United States as our model for reform? Or, are we more suited to the Parliamentary, also bicameral, models in the UK or Canada? Do we stick with our proportional voting system, or do we adopt a first-past-the-post system?
All of these systems have evolved over a long period of time elsewhere. We need time too, hopefully much shorter than most others. There are fundamental questions about the structure of our future system that we have not yet even started to address. This is something that the Administration, all our political parties, lobby groups, activists, academics, the media and the man and woman in the street need to think about seriously.
We also need to groom more political talent. At the moment, our largest political party has about 3,500 members, while the next largest has about 800 members. In a city of almost 7 million, such numbers are quite low. So, we need to look for ways to help political parties develop and mature. This takes time, too.
In my first Policy Address delivered just last month, I unveiled plans to enhance governance in Hong Kong. One of the ways we will do this is to bring in more people, from a broader cross-section of the community, to serve on our advisory boards and statutory bodies. We will significantly boost the strength of our Commission on Strategic Development, our most important advisory body. We will empower our district-level councils to manage certain local services. This will give District Councillors a taste of political responsibility, and a greater say in providing the services that are so important to local communities.
Now you may get an idea of what I meant earlier when I said it is not that simple, even for tiny Hong Kong. But I am determined to make a success of the opportunities we have been given.
Two weeks ago, we released a package of measures to boost the electoral franchise for the 2007 and 2008 elections. I believe it represents a significant step forward on the road to universal suffrage. In essence, the package of proposals aims at broadening the electorate for the Chief Executive election in 2007 by incorporating over 500 members of the District Councils into an expanded 1,600 Election Committee. And most of those District Council members were directly elected in the first place. We also propose that the Legislative Council to be formed in 2008 should be expanded from the current composition of 60 seats to 70 seats. All 10 new seats will be returned by direct or indirect district-based elections. Five will be directly elected and another five elected among District Councillors.
Eighty percent of these District Councillors are directly elected on the basis of three million registered voters. Currently, we have a debate in Hong Kong regarding the participation of appointed District Councillors in these elections. Our view is that both elected and appointed District Councillors are already part of our political institutions and we should give them parity of treatment under our electoral laws. I note that there are elements of appointment to parliaments in different parts of the world. Here in the UK, there is an ongoing lively debate of constitutional reforms to the House of Lords.
Back in Hong Kong, my Administration will be lobbying hard to get the necessary support from legislators, which won't be an easy job I can tell you. Most of our bills are passed by a slender majority, but we need a two-thirds majority to pass any changes to the electoral system.
My aim is to ensure that the arrangements for these next two major elections are more open and inclusive; and also to lay the foundations for further development of our own 'Made in Hong Kong' model of democracy.
The new package of proposals is our immediate political challenge. It is a defining moment for political development in Hong Kong. What happens next sets the scene for our future reform efforts. If we don¡¦t succeed in steering this package through the Legislative Council, then the status quo remains. The hard work over the past two years, of intensive and widespread consultation and of putting the proposals together, will be lost.
Worse, the mutual trust we have taken pains to build between the Central Government and ourselves, the trust we will need to take our democratization forward, will dissipate.
In practical terms, we would then have to wait until at least 2012 ¡V when both the Chief Executive and Legislative Council elections are to be held ¡V before we could see an expansion of the electoral franchise. I believe that would be a great pity, and an opportunity lost for Hong Kong.
The debate on the 2007 and 2008 arrangements has just begun in Hong Kong. I have faith that our legislators will ultimately reach the right decision, because the package of proposals announced by the Administration has the support of a majority of people in Hong Kong. They understand that universal suffrage is not achievable
in 2007 and 2008.
To sum up, we intend to open up the system of government across the board to make it more representative and more inclusive:
¡P we are creating more room for political participation, for example, through increasing seats in the next general election of the Legislative Council;
¡P we will put forth proposals for expanding the system of political appointments, so that our Principal Officials will have political offices through which they can extend their network of liaison throughout the community and our Civil Service will remain politically neutral;
¡P we will devolve more power and responsibility to District Councils;
¡P we will work out the roadmap for attaining universal suffrage through the Commission on Strategic Development.
We are taking these rather bold steps on the basis of experience in our efforts to achieve effective governance since the reunification in 1997. We are now ready to move ahead on all fronts. These reforms will bring into life the principle of 'Hong Kong people running Hong Kong' as envisaged in the Basic Law.
Here, I must also mention that it is up to us in Hong Kong to prove that we do indeed have the ability to be masters of our own house. Rather than endless bickering over differences, we need to look for common ground when discussing our political development, and use this as a basis for building trust ¡V not just between the various political parties and the government in Hong Kong; but also between Hong Kong people and our sovereign after a separation of one and a half centuries. Trust remains the key element in going forward.
Eight years after reunification, Hong Kong is now entering a new phase of economic, political and social development. Economically, as I mentioned earlier, we are in the best shape we have been in years and our prospects are bright.
Socially and politically, Hong Kong is maturing and becoming even more sophisticated. Our political development is just one important issue that we have to deal with to ensure our ongoing prosperity, and the faithful implementation of ¡¥One Country, Two Systems¡¦.
For sure, 'One Country, Two Systems' is about protecting the rights and freedoms we enjoy under the 'two systems' part of the formula. We are a free society under the rule of law, and we vigorously defend all of those freedoms that make us such an open society and successful economy. But, 'One Country, Two Systems' is also about defining our role within China; how we can make best use of our 'special' status and strengths to help our country develop and engage the world. We are just eight years into this remarkable undertaking. It is a solemn mission, and I know that our national leaders are firmly committed to its success. As are all of us in Hong Kong.
Thank you very much.
Ends/Friday, November 4, 2005
Issued at HKT 00:45
NNNN