Hong Kong's journey towards democracy has been painfully slow. Progress has certainly been made over the past two decades, but we are still a long way from achieving the ultimate aim of universal suffrage which is enshrined in the Basic Law.
The proposals for change announced by the government yesterday will, if implemented, take our city a little closer to that goal - but only a little. They have the potential to rejuvenate grassroots politics by giving more power to the district councils. That is a positive development. But the plans also maintain many profoundly undemocratic features for the election of the chief executive in 2007 and the Legislative Council in 2008. And no indication has been given as to what will happen after that. The proposals are therefore not as significant or substantive as Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan suggests.
We should not be too surprised. Beijing laid down the framework for the reforms last year. It ruled out universal suffrage for 2007 and 2008 and also imposed other limitations on the changes that can be made.
Under the Basic Law, reforms can only be made if they are backed by at least two-thirds of the lawmakers and also by Beijing. The proposals were, therefore, always going to be a compromise intended to attract broad support. Indeed, Mr Hui said the government would be begging lawmakers for votes.
The government's package seeks to achieve a consensus by giving greater prominence to district councillors. Under the plan, they would all become members of an expanded Election Committee to choose the next chief executive. They would also elect among themselves five new functional constituency members for Legco. Four hundred and twenty seven of the district councillors are elected by universal suffrage. The government no doubt hopes that this factor will be tempting enough to the pro-democracy camp to win its support for the package.
But the democratic element of the proposal is watered down by other aspects of the plan. One hundred and two district councillors who are appointed by the chief executive will be included in the new arrangements. The result will be a system in which the government is able to stack the cards by picking a significant number of the voters. This may provide the central government and conservative forces in Hong Kong with some comfort. But it is not a way of making progress towards universal suffrage - quite the opposite.
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