Anson Chan and Regina Ip agree HK's political parties have their work cut out
Anson Chan Fang On-sang and Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, former senior officials who have gone on to become two of Hong Kong's most high-profile political commentators, have spelled out their visions for attaining full democracy.
In separate articles published by the online Hong Kong Journal, a Washington-based quarterly hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mrs Chan, a former chief secretary, and Mrs Ip, a former secretary for security, both recognise a need and desire within Hong Kong for full democracy.
However, in her article, 'A feasible road to democracy', Mrs Chan writes that the city has made little progress towards achieving this goal since the 1997 handover, a failure which she attributes to five causes.
She summarises these causes as 'a failure on the part of the government to provide firm leadership'; 'a false claim that Hong Kong people care only about the economy and not about democracy' and fears that voters would opt for 'excessive social welfare'; an arbitrary expansion in the terms of the Basic Law, setting new preconditions that Hong Kong must meet 'before we are deemed 'ready' for universal suffrage'; and a perception that democracy would challenge the central government's authority.
These fears and concerns are misplaced, she writes. Hong Kong's citizens are law-abiding and pragmatic, she says. Although political parties have failed to grow, this is not surprising given the government's ambivalent attitude towards the provision of 'a sound structural and legal framework' in which they can develop, Mrs Chan writes.
