Civic choice and nominating committee are not mutually exclusive
Karen Lee says universal suffrage is possible under the Basic Law
Politics is the art of the possible," said Otto von Bismarck, Germany's first chancellor after the Treaty of Versailles.
A group of 18 local academics, myself included, have risen to this challenge in putting forward a proposal for electing the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2017.
An acceptable plan borders on the impossible amid the current impasse. On the one hand, members of the pan-democratic camp insist on nominating chief executive candidates by civic nomination to achieve "true democracy", while on the other, officials from the central and Hong Kong governments maintain any proposal that tampers with the substantive nomination power of the nominating committee is unconstitutional under the Basic Law and the National People's Congress Standing Committee's decisions.
Yet we believe it is possible, within Hong Kong's constitutional framework, to enable candidates of different political views to stand for the chief executive election under universal suffrage.
Hence, we put forward a proposal that contains four key elements:
- The introduction of a statutory "civic recommendation" track that precedes the nominating procedure, allowing an eligible person supported by 2 per cent of all registered voters (approximately 70,000) to become a "potential candidate" to be considered by the nominating committee.
- A nomination threshold of one-eighth of the members of the committee, that is, 150, in accordance with the existing arrangement.
- The composition of the nominating committee may be modelled after the existing 1,200-member Election Committee, but with an enlarged electoral base, including replacing the corporate votes with individual votes.
- The chief executive should be elected over two rounds.
Doubts have arisen over whether a non-binding "civic recommendation" can pass muster, on the grounds that someone with the backing of 70,000 voters may fail to obtain support from one-eighth of nominating committee.
Yet, with a nominating committee founded on an enlarged electoral base, it is unlikely that seven-eighths of its members would not support a candidate with the backing of 70,000 citizens. In fact, we believe that the sense of mandate enshrined in the civic recommendation not only assists nominating committee members to discharge their duty on a more informed basis, but also helps enhance the stature of the potential candidates.
Those who oppose the existing composition of the Election Committee may also take issue with the distribution of nomination powers in the prospective nominating committee. They argue that even with an enlarged electoral base, the nominating committee would still be dominated by an elite minority.
We seek universal suffrage that imposes no unreasonable restraints on any widely endorsed candidate to stand for elections and gives Hong Kong voters a real choice. Hence, the crux lies in ensuring every citizen's right and opportunity to "vote and be elected" on the basis of "universal and equal suffrage", as stipulated under Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Under our proposed framework, "civic recommendation" and a "nominating committee" are not mutually exclusive.
It is possible to achieve universal and equal suffrage under the Basic Law. It is possible to conceive a proposal that gives Hong Kong people a voice in the nominating process. It is possible for Hong Kong to see to it that candidates from across the political spectrum take part in the chief executive election in 2017.
