The demand for a timetable for universal suffrage is being treated by the mainland and Hong Kong governments as a new issue. They say it should be thoroughly discussed in conjunction with other ideas such as a road map, a two-chamber legislature, the possible negative impact of democracy on the economy and on social harmony.
The intention seems to be to discuss and delay democracy as long as possible and, in the meantime, to get the Legislative Council to pass Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's political reform package on December 21. In truth, however, the question of a timetable is by no means new. It has been with Hong Kong since the 1980s, ever since both the British and Chinese governments refused to be pinned down on a date when the people here will be able to enjoy full democracy.
The demand for full democracy became especially pressing in the wake of the Tiananmen Square military crackdown in June 1989. In that year, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons came up with a timetable. It proposed that 50 per cent of all seats in Legco be directly elected in 1991 and 100 per cent in 1995. However, the British government turned it down.
Then Omelco - the Office of Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils - came up with its own timetable: 50 per cent of all seats would be directly elected in 1995 and 100 per cent in 2003. That, too, was rejected by Britain.
In 1990, London promised to approach Beijing for more directly elected seats in 1995. In 1991, after the first direct elections, all 18 directly elected members signed a letter urging that 30 of the 60 seats be elected that way in 1995. Because Britain's mandate was due to run out in 1997, the letter did not say when the entire legislature should be directly elected.
I wrote in the South China Morning Post on June 19, 1992 - more than 13 years ago - under the headline 'Time to set a date for democracy in Hongkong': 'What is needed is not a fight for earlier realisation of 50 per cent democracy but a fight for 100 per cent democracy to be realised at some set point.
'What is needed is not a few more directly elected seats in 1995, but a guarantee that full democracy will come one day. This means, at the minimum, getting a commitment from China on when the legislature will be totally returned through direct elections.'
