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Letter to the Secretary for the Constitutional Affairs on the future constitutional development for the HKSAR

12^th November 2002

Mr Stephen Lam
Secretary for the Constitutional Affairs
Constitutional Affairs Bureau
Government Secretariat
3^rd Floor, Main Wing
Central Government Offices
Lower Albert Road
Hong Kong

Dear Mr Lam,

I am writing to formally thank you for sparing the time to meet with the Power for Democracy delegation on 13^th September 2002. We very much appreciated this opportunity for an exchange of views on future constitutional development.

I would like to take this opportunity to recap on the main points that were raised during our meeting.

We requested the Government set out a timetable for consultation with the public on the issue of constitutional reform, which should commence as quickly as possible. We stressed that as this was a complex subject it merited and indeed would need, an extensive period of public consultation. Therefore an early start to the process is very necessary if an acceptable community consensus is to be achieved in time for the relevant legislation to be formulated and passed so that new arrangements can take effect from 2008.

In this respect, we would like to refer you to the "Green Paper" produced as an outcome to the seminar "Thinking about 2007", which was co-organized by the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation and Hong Kong Policy Research Institute in October 2000. The "Green Paper", a copy of which is enclosed, can be accessed on the Internet via http://www.hkdf.org/seminars/001021/01oct21.htm. It provides a very comprehensive, though not necessarily exhaustive, overview of the many issues that ought to form part of the consideration process in respect of further constitutional development. From this it is very evident that considerable time will be required in order to deal with these issues in a thorough manner. Therefore setting the process in motion is a matter of considerable urgency.

As part of the process of consultation on further constitutional development, we proposed that a Constitutional Convention be held. We suggested that this might be along the lines of the Australian model of electing representatives to serve on this Convention, which ought to have formal binding powers in respect of the outcome of its deliberations.

For the 2004 Legislative Council elections, we requested that the expansion of the electorate for the various Functional Constituencies be seriously considered, in particular by replacing corporate votes with individual votes.

We also requested that with effect from the 2003 District Council Elections all seats be fully directly elected. There is a very simple and effective way for the various District Boards to access specialist expertise, other than to have this provided by way of appointed members. This could be effected by co-opting people with the desired expertise to the District Boards in a non-voting capacity.

There appears to continue to be considerable diffidence within the Government as to the benefits to the community of a fully democratic system, at least within a reasonably prompt time frame. We would therefore like to draw your attention to the paper by the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation "Democracy for the Economy’s Sake", copy enclosed, which can be accessed on the Internet via http://www.hkdf.org/newsletters/0201/0201_5.htm. This clearly demonstrates the crucial role that a fully democratic system plays in the economic and social development of any community.

Without being unreasonably alarmist, we would suggest that if the community is not afforded the opportunity to debate the issue of further constitutional development at an early date, given the existing frustration with the economic situation, further negative sentiment towards the Government is likely to be generated. This would make the job of effectively governing Hong Kong even more difficult than it is now.

The "Green Paper" referred to above proposed the following timetable for the process of considering and implementing further constitutional development, to which we would respond with the following alternative timetable: 

We very much hope that we will be able to continue this dialogue with the Constitutional Affairs Bureau. We look forward to having further opportunities of meeting with you and your colleagues to help further the achievement of a consensus on the various issues related to constitutional development for the Hong Kong SAR.

Yours Sincerely,