Democrats divided over reform strategy
The Democratic Party has agreed to maintain its dialogue with Beijing despite its initial opposition to the government's proposal for electoral reform.
But former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang has questioned the party's stance, saying dialogue without sincerity on Beijing's part would give the government an excuse to push a proposal that would deliver 'fake democracy'.
Party leader Albert Ho Chun-yan, who disclosed last week that middlemen 'authorised' by Beijing had been conducting regular talks with the party since the Lunar New Year, said yesterday he had received fresh messages after the release of the reform proposal last week.
'They asked us not to stop the dialogue after the government announced the proposal,' Ho said. 'We will continue it. But if there is no change at all to the proposal, we are prepared to veto it.'
The Democratic Party and other moderate pan-democrats have stressed the need to continue dialogue with Beijing despite sharing the rest of the camp's antipathy for the government's proposal. Pan-democrats say the proposal lacks a road map to universal suffrage.
The government is proposing to create 10 more seats in Legco; five of them in the district councils' functional constituency, and to increase by half the membership of the Election Committee that will pick the chief executive.
Ho said dialogue was a long-term process and even if the current negotiations yielded nothing and pan-democrats vetoed the proposal, the party would continue to talk to Beijing with the ultimate aim of achieving universal suffrage. But Anson Chan said it took two to tango in any negotiations.
'There have been no results in the negotiations over the past few months. It is time the people decided to unite and use their votes to raise our bargaining chips,' Chan said.
'I support communication, but we want results. If it drags on for a few more months, it will only give the government another excuse to push for a proposal for fake democracy.'
She was speaking during a canvassing session for the Civic Party's Tanya Chan - one of five lawmakers who resigned to trigger by-elections next month that they see as a de facto referendum on the pace and scope of democratisation.
The government has offered some minor concessions if pan-democrats approve its reform proposal, such as giving up its right to appoint 102 of the 534 district councillors. But these concessions do not even come close to meeting their demand that the government commit to scrapping functional constituency seats when universal suffrage is introduced for Legco elections in 2020.
Yesterday, the 18 pan-democrat lawmakers decided to ask Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to meet them. Independent democrat Cyd Ho Sau-lan said the group hoped to meet Tsang before lawmakers visit the World Expo in Shanghai on May 8. Beijing's invitation to lawmakers to visit the Expo - which some spurned - was seen as an olive branch.
