The government's public consultation on the reform proposals for the 2012 elections has been in progress for two months. Rather than trying to secure a deal to move constitutional reform forward, the opposition camp refrains from any in-depth discussion of the government's proposal and, instead, the Civil Party and the League of Social Democrats are set to quit and re-contest their seats in the subsequent by-elections. They are hoping that the by-elections will be taken as a "referendum" on democracy in Hong Kong.

Legally speaking, the purported "referendum" is unconstitutional and entirely misconceived in nature. As a matter of fact, Hong Kong is only a local administrative region of the country and a referendum has never been part of the "one country, two systems" arrangement for Hong Kong. In the absence of express authority under the Basic Law, which is the constitutional document of Hong Kong, any purported referendum undoubtedly has no legal ground and has no lawful effectiveness. Needless to say, the government will not recognize the result of such a purported referendum.

From a fiscal perspective, we cannot overlook the unnecessary public spending caused by the by-elections. As disclosed by Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam, the government is legally obliged to arrange the by-elections after lawmakers' resignation and it is estimated that the by-elections will cost about HK$150 million. Frankly speaking, such a substantial amount of public funds could be allocated to help the poor and needy, rather than fund the unnecessary by-elections. Statistically, the taxpayers' money of HK$150 million could pay an additional monthly allowance of HK$250 to the existing 50,000 senior citizens receiving disability allowance under the Social Security Allowance Scheme for one year.

Practically, the resignation plan serves no purpose other than a waste of our time and does nothing to further discussion of the government's proposal. After the by-elections, the lawmakers will still need to deal with the government's reform proposals for 2012 elections, which they are obliged to handle as lawmakers of Hong Kong. Sadly, the government's consultation will be largely blurred by controversy over the resignation plan by the opposition lawmakers, an action which is definitely not in the interest of the people of Hong Kong.

Finally, the resignation plan is currently advocated only by the Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats and lacks support from their alliance, particularly the Democratic Party. Ironically, the Democratic Party has raised doubts and expressly rejected the resignation plan, and the resignation plan has been condemned as logically confused by a heavyweight of the Democratic Party.

All in all, the resignation plan is of no benefit to the constitutional development of Hong Kong and is only a waste of public funds. For the sake of reaching universal suffrage for the Chief Executive in 2017 and the entire legislature in 2020, we should not disappoint the public again and should strive to advance our constitutional development in 2012.

The author is vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong

(HK Edition 01/22/2010 page1)