Rita Fan hails democrats and craves compromise
Despite their condemnation of the government's proposal for electoral changes in 2012, pan-democrats were yesterday praised by a top Beijing loyalist for being willing to maintain dialogue with the government. Still, she said the chances of them striking a deal were small.
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and former Legislative Council president, suggested pan-democrats accept at least part of the proposal.
'The package does have quite a gap between what they want and the present situation,' Fan said. 'If they choose to reject this proposal, I can only respect their views.
'I can only hope that, if possible, they could just take a few steps back and think again.'
The government is proposing to add 10 seats to Legco - half of them for functional constituencies - and increase the size of the Election Committee that picks the chief executive. Pan-democrats want election by universal suffrage introduced as soon as possible. Lawmakers from the Civic Party and League of Social Democrats resigned to trigger by-elections they see as a de facto referendum on abolishing functional constituencies.
The Democratic Party and its moderate allies in the Alliance for Universal Suffrage are not taking part in the referendum exercise, and Fan has acted as a go-between for the alliance, passing its demands to Beijing.
The alliance's key demand is that Beijing give an unequivocal assurance that genuine universal suffrage will be introduced in 2017 for the election of the chief executive and in 2020 for the Legco election.
When the government issued its proposal on Wednesday - little changed from the one put out for consultation five months ago - the Democratic Party and other moderate pan-democrats reiterated hopes for dialogue with Beijing.
Fan praised them for their goodwill and said she would not rule out such a dialogue. But she is not optimistic the government will persuade enough pan-democrats to support its proposal for it to secure the required two-thirds majority in Legco. The administration needs the votes of four pan-democrats.
On Thursday, Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen offered the camp a carrot, saying the government was prepared to consider giving up its right to appoint 102 of the 534 district councillors if pan-democrats ensured the passage of electoral reform proposals for 2012. Their response to the offer was lukewarm.
Without elaborating, Fan said the pan-democrats could choose to support part of the government proposal because the public did not want electoral change blocked again. And more concessions could be made.
'[They should] see whether it is possible to support some of it. It is totally up to them,' she said.
It is expected lawmakers will be asked to vote separately on arrangements for the chief executive election and those for the Legco election.
Fan's comments were seen by unionist Lee Cheuk-yan as an invitation for pan-democrats to support the government's proposal for the chief executive election. It is less controversial than that for Legco, which would increase the number of seats for functional constituencies, which have small electorates and whose abolition is a core demand of pan-democrats.
'How the chief executive will be elected as mentioned in the current proposal is unacceptable. But if the government can make a concession on that, it is a viable solution,' Lee said.
Fung Wai-wah, a spokesman for the alliance, said member groups would decide today what to do to put pressure on the government. That could include demonstrations.
Pan-democrat lawmakers will publish a statement next week explaining why they see the proposal as a backward step.
