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    Business sector must be more active politically

2004-05-10 06:39

Democrats in Hong Kong have tried to describe the ruling by the country's top legislature on constitutional development as the end of democratic progress. This is not true.

Apart from the central government, the business community has also shown worries about Hong Kong moving too fast towards universal suffrage.

The essence of democracy is not the tyranny of the majority over the minority. The misgivings of the business sector, though a minority, have to be seriously addressed.

The SAR government, weak in power, is unable to rise up against the democrats. Thus the central government is obliged to play an arbitrating role in upholding the principle of balanced participation.

The functional constituencies, which represent balanced participation, are the legacy of the colonial era. They are retained in the SAR political establishment because the business interests want certain form of safeguards against possible encroachment.

Some sort of two-tier legislative arrangement similar to that of the UK and US was considered during the drafting of the Basic Law. Yet it was rejected on the ground that it would be too cumbersome for a small city like Hong Kong to have an upper chamber and a lower chamber of the legislature. Instead, the two chambers were combined into one with geographical and functional constituencies.

Legislative Council members enjoy equal power in every aspect irrespective of their constituencies. Yet members of the geographical constituencies have more popular support and more limelight. They also put in much more effort, with most of them working full-time.

As for functional constituency members, they are seen to be protecting only their very narrow interests. Absenteeism is quite high among them.

After the September election, they will be in danger of becoming second-class citizens in the Legislative Council when their number is equal to that of geographical constituencies. Their importance, respectability and legitimacy will be further reduced once they become a minority in the legislature, and the whole political ecology will be drastically altered.

The National People's Congress ruled that the half-half ratio for the two constituencies in the Legislative Council will remain unchanged for the 2008 session, but the tip-over is bound to take place after that. It is now quite obvious that this political "free lunch" cannot be counted on for long.

Many of the misgivings of the richer people in Hong Kong are not completely unfounded. The tax base of the SAR is very narrow, with about 20,000 taxpayers paying most of the taxes. A great majority of the voters are either paying very little tax or none at all, and it would be easy to lure their votes with lavish promises to spend other tax-payers' money, leading to welfareism.

At the very least, popularly elected legislators cannot vote against bills that would favour the interests of the grassroots although they might lead to disastrous results. A notorious example is the setting of public-housing rent at 10 per cent of the median household income, resulting in a waste of tens of billions in public money. This is yet to be stopped, and our lawmakers do not show any remorse.

The interests of the elite cannot be sidestepped. After all, Hong Kong thrives on business. It is perhaps time to rethink the idea of a two-tier legislature. All the functional seats can be put upstairs like the House of Lords in the UK, and the role of its members is just to veto any bill that they think would hurt their interest. With this safeguard in place, all the seats of the Legislative Council can be open for direct election.

Of course the richer people would like to promote their interests rather than just defending them. Like all other citizens, they want to have a say in Hong Kong's future development.

They are in a more advantageous position because they have more resources than most people on the street. They have more money, more information and more extensive connections, which they can put to good use in sponsoring political parties and promoting politicians as their representatives in the lawmaking body. This is the right approach to balanced participation, as has been successfully repeated in many other democracies.

With ample supply of political "free lunch", and highly restricted room for political parties, the business community has not been quite enthusiastic in participating in the game of universal suffrage. Besides, with election budgets topped at a very low ceiling, money does not count much in winning seats.

The Basic Law has prescribed universal suffrage as the ultimate goal and the course is set. The business community cannot forever delay it by claiming they are not yet ready, especially when they are not doing anything to get ready.

They should take a proactive approach, pumping in resources not only to prepare themselves, but to overcome obstacles and build up the necessary political infrastructure to make the whole society ready for universal suffrage, say, in 2012 or 2016-2017. Those with foresight will get a head start and reap more political benefits.

The central government has provided room for transition in the Basic Law, and has now taken the step to protect business interests. We cannot expect it to perform the balancing act for us forever. How to achieve balanced participation to resolve internal conflict of various sectarian interests to sustain prosperity, stability and development is something we have to work out among ourselves right here at the SAR level, in the true spirit of "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong".

(HK Edition 05/10/2004 page7)