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JOSHUA BUT

The Legislative Council should retain its functional constituencies until after it achieves universal suffrage in 2020, lawmaker Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung says.
Lam, vice-chairman of the Business and Professionals Alliance and an Executive Council member, also said a 50:50 balance should be kept between the trade-based and directly-elected seats in the 2016 Legco election.
As the debate over electoral reform rages on in the city, the business sector - an integral part of the pro-establishment camp - has been unusually quiet.
Lam, who was last year elected uncontested as a representative of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said universal suffrage was unlikely to bring drastic changes to the city's business environment.
"As long as the final proposal meets the Basic Law's criteria and is accepted by the Hong Kong people, the business sector will not resist democracy," he said.
"But … universal suffrage cannot solve every problem," he added.
"We need long-term policies to thrive, yet none of them - from housing to landfill extensions to the northeast New Territories development - have gone smoothly in the past year."
The reform debate touches on the methods through which Hong Kong can achieve the "one person, one vote" ideal in the 2017 chief executive election, as well as how to make the 2016 Legco election more democratic.
Some radical pan-democrats have suggested doing away with the Legco's 35 trade-based seats. More moderate proposals have sought to reform the corporate votes in certain constituencies.
Lam's alliance holds six trade-based seats, five of which are in functional constituencies. Lam said these seats were "representative" and "professional", and that they should continue to represent half the Legco in the 2016 election and "be retained in some form" in 2020.
"It is essential for the voice of the business sector to be heard in the council," he said. "It is always easy to complain and criticise after things go sour. The functional constituencies could help counter populism."
Lam said the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement - a plan to block the roads in Central next July as a last resort in the city's fight for democracy - was worrying.
"It's a threat rather than a democratic pursuit," he said. "I don't think the organisers can control the crowd when it happens. It's natural for the business sector to do some risk management ahead of the possible chaos, and the harm to the economy could be huge."


Trade-based Legco seats should stay until 2020: lawmaker Jeffrey Lam

Lawmaker says it remains essential for the business sector's voice to be heard