According to the latest survey conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, over 50 percent of the respondents supported the constitutional reform plan proposed by the SAR government despite the fact that most of the people found the proposed plan "not ideal". Only 29.5 per cent of the 1,007 polled agreed with the opposition camp that the proposals are "a step backward", while 40.3 percent saw them as "a step forward".

We have to take into consideration that, in fact, Hong Kong is not an independent place. In order to take a step forward in political development, we have to get the agreement or consensus from two-thirds of the legislature, the Hong Kong government, the Central Government and the general public. Most important of all, we have to work under the framework of the Basic Law and according to the decisions made by the standing committee of the National People's Congress. Universal suffrage is clearly specified in the Basic Law and the only thing to answer is how to achieve it, given all the above-mentioned constraints, plus our need to comply with the principle of "gradual and orderly progress" in accordance with the Basic Law.

The two major decisions that must be made before the end of the consultation period are how to realize the selection and election by universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council (LegCo) for 2017 and 2020, respectively; 2012 is only the midway stop for the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage. That is, if we cannot move forward, there is a chance that we will be challenged for failure to comply with the constitutional requirement for "gradual and orderly progress". Therefore, it is very important for Hong Kong to take this step forward. The general public and the government have to take into account the fact that 2012 is the only midway stop and this is the last chance to expand the Chief Executive election committee before 2017.

For the realization of electing the LegCo by universal suffrage, there remain two midway stops: 2012 and 2016. Practically speaking, if we want to move forward, we have to get two thirds of members of the current LegCo to agree. Any proposal to abolish or curtail the rights of the existing functional constituencies is hardly believed to be able to get the existing members to agree.

The other way to progress is to expand the numbers of voters in each functional constituency in order to make the functional constituencies more "democratic".

According to the proposals put forward by the government, the LegCo in 2012 will have 10 additional seats, half of which will be directly elected and the other half allocated to functional constituencies. The new functional constituency seats will be elected by elected District Council members from among themselves.

This is not a prefect proposal, in the sense that it does nothing to change the composition and election method for the existing functional constituencies. However, the proposal is practical in that it is easier to get support from the general public as all are involved in District Council elections as well as from existing legislators, since their interests are not affected. It is definitely a forward-moving proposal.

Some do not agree with allocating the new seats to the District Council and suggest allocating those new seats to other new sectors such as the civil servants sector, and Chinese enterprises non-government organizations which employ more than 100,000 workers. Others have asked me why there are no representatives for housewives and the unemployed or even retired people in the LegCo. Views are divided in this regard. But most importantly, the public in general will not agree to creating new sectors unless everyone has the same right to participate.

Some commentators are against the allocation of new seats to the District Council because they believe most of the district council members are not well qualified and will make the LegCo a place for district affairs. Working as a district council member and with other district councilors for more than 10 years, I find these comments unfair and prejudicial to district councilors. All directly elected district councilors are accountable to their residents and the Hong Kong people in general. They are being closely watched by the media and voters of their constituencies. As long as the rules are set, voters will chose the right candidates based on what they have done in the past and what they pledge to achieve as voters know that those selected have a relatively good chance of becoming legislators.

Therefore, the proposal put forward by the government is a practical solution to allow democratization of the LegCo to move forward. I cannot think of any other method that is politically achievable.

The SAR Government has resolutely decided to exclude appointed members of District Councils for both its proposed new functional constituency seats in LegCo and the expanded Election Committee for the Chief Executive. These arrangements are definitely steps forward as compared with the proposal put forward in 2005.

Whether or not functional constituency seats in LegCo should be abolished is not a matter to be dealt with during this consultation. We still have six years to go before we reach another midway stop, 2016, before 2020. Today, the most important decisions for us to make are what electoral arrangements should be adopted in 2012 for both the Chief Executive and LegCo. Let's move forward and discuss that; we have already missed one opportunity.

The author is a member of the Legislative Council

(HK Edition 01/15/2010 page1)