In her thought-provoking and upbeat speech about Hong Kong at the Pacific Basin Economic Council, Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang spoke of what she described as one of the top priorities for the post-handover government; the election of the first Special Administrative Region legislature. Once the immediate business of the handover has passed, this may well be the single most important political issue facing the new administration. As Mrs Chan emphasised during her speech in Manila, the best headline after July 1 would be 'nothing happens'. That said, one thing will happen, for sure: the popularly elected legislature will be ousted as the Chinese flag is raised, and replaced by a body picked by a selection committee. For as long as that remains the case, there will be a hole at the centre of the way Hong Kong operates. The system by which elections for the new legislature are conducted will not only be extremely important in itself, but will also play a key part in setting the tone for the first year of the Special Administrative Region. A scrupulously fair and equitable election producing a legislature with a real mandate from the people would provide a central point round which the territory could rally as it determines its political character. Achieving this should be one of the first major tasks of the new government, and will certainly be keenly watched by the outside world as a clear signal that the democratic process is seen to be alive and well here, that lively political debate continues unimpeded, and that the central Government in Beijing has the confidence to live with a very different system in Hong Kong. In this process, as Mrs Chan also pointed out, public debate must retain its vigour. The liveliness of our society is one of its strengths, and it should maintain the confidence to absorb dissent and not become servants of what she described as 'some real or imagined catalogue of political correctness'. Without that, the independent spirit which reaches far beyond politics in contributing to the success of Hong Kong will be put at risk.