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Advisory Council

22 January, 1997

Mr Tung-Chee-hwa
Chief Executive
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
29/F, Harbour Centre
25 Harbour Road
Wanchai, Hong Kong

Dear Mr Tung,

Congratulations on your election as the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. We wish you every success in this historic, demanding and challenging post.

While you are in the process of formulating your Administration and advisory bodies, we would like to put forward a particular idea for your consideration, which we do from our somewhat unique perspective as a body whose membership is almost entirely Chinese with foreign passports or expatriates who have lived in Hong Kong for a considerable period of time.

Under the British system of administering Hong Kong there has been no formal bar to any Hong Kong Belonger from being selected or elected to serve in any of the councils or official bodies that constitute the machinery of the governance f the territory. However, with the resumption of the sovereignty of Hong Kong by China and the implementation of the Basic Law, there will be restrictions both f ethnicity and nationality to service in the top echelons of the Government, the Executive Council and to some extent in the Legislative Council. The result of this will be to deprive the territory of the formal participation in the administrative process of the SAR of some very wise, talented and experienced figures of diverse expertise and opinions, most of whom would be ethnic Chinese. Given the special circumstances of Hong Kong, it is undoubtedly a disappointment to the community for important positions and as a consequence weaken to some extent the legitimacy of the Government.

We would like to propose that you create some form of mechanism, possibly an additional advisory Council, or similar body, to which the appointees would all be Hong Kong Belongers who would not qualify on either ethnic and/or nationality grounds for consideration for appointment to the highest levels in the Administration, the Executive Council, or who would have restricted opportunities for election to the Legislative Council. We believe such a body would enable you formally to seek opinions from a broader constituency than you would otherwise have available to you. While we would recommend that it operate under the convention of confidentiality, since it would be purely advisory in nature and devoid of the constitutional authority of the Executive Council, there would be no need to require adherence to collective responsibility from its members. To be of value, such a body probably ought to meet with you on a regular basis, maybe monthly. If practicable, it would be desirable if selection to such a body was by some from of election, rather than simply by appointment. As Hong Kong faces the challenges of 1997, it would be a great pity if the formal advice of experienced, committed and talented Hong Kong Belongers were to be lost with the transfer of sovereignty just on the grounds of nationality or even race. We all have a common desire to see Hong Kong continue to prosper and develop and we believe that the best way to achieve this is to continue Hong Kong’s system of meritocracy.

The Hong Kong Democratic Foundation is sure this proposal would be of help to Hong Kong and I hope you will give it your personal consideration.

We shall, of course, be at your disposal if you felt a meeting to explore the matter further would be of use.

Wishing you every success, I remain

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Shiu Kin-ying
Chairman