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Letters | Hong Kong must not give up on promise of universal suffrage

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A visitor takes a picture during the opening ceremony of an exhibition dedicated to Deng Xiaoping, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on August 21, 2014. Photo: Sam Tsang
Hong Kong has enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs, since its return to China in 1997 – in accordance with the Joint Declaration signed between China and Britain. The Basic Law stipulates that the Hong Kong people will have universal suffrage for choosing the legislature and the chief executive, but these agreements seem to have been broken by China.
Beijing bypassed the Legislative Council and imposed the national security law, apparently violating Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and eroding its judicial independence. The recent heated debate over the “separation of powers” has drawn many pundits into the fray.

The term originated from the “tripartite system” often associated with French Enlightenment political philosopher Baron De Montesquieu, who held that it was essential to prevent the three branches of government being exercised or united in the same individual or group or else there could be no liberty.

Despite separation of powers not being written into the Basic Law, we could see the three branches exercising their own functions until Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong’s internal affairs. Contesting whether separation of powers exists in Hong Kong, I think, is a waste of time.

Hong Kong people should put all their energies behind universal suffrage for the legislature and chief executive because they were promised to Hong Kong by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. It was Deng who also introduced term limits to prevent top leaders in China from becoming too powerful and arbitrary. Without democracy, there is no rule of law; without the rule of law, there is no justice; without justice, there is no morality. We must keep that in mind.

Barnaby Ieong, Macau

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