Former Secretary: Democrats have advanced demands too difficult to fulfill

The Hong Kong SAR government must secure the support of the Democratic Party in order to get the 2012 electoral packages passed, former secretary for home affairs Patrick Ho said. If the government cannot win the party's support, it may have to target other legislators within the opposition camp, he noted.

Speaking to China Daily in an exclusive interview, Ho said the pursuit of universal suffrage should progress in a gradual and orderly manner. It is essential for the government to explain (the electoral reform) better to win public support and to regain moral high ground from the democrats, he added.

In their hearts, the democrats very much want to pass the package which will give them more Legislative Council (LegCo) seats and development opportunities, said Ho. "But they cannot support the reforms openly. If they do so, the y will lose the moral high ground of being the opposition," he said.

He noted the democrats seem to say that they are the only people in Hong Kong who pursue universal suffrage, but that is wrong.

"Universal suffrage is the result of endeavors of the Chinese people. It is written in the Basic Law, but it is not mentioned in the Sino-British Joint Declaration," he said.

Ho also noted the Alliance for Universal Suffrage, which is composed of organizations other than the Civic Party and League of Social Democrats, has advanced many demands that are not easy to fulfill.

First, it is inappropriate to lower the nomination threshold or impose ceilings on the number of nominations a candidate can acquire for the Chief Executive election, Ho pointed out.

In his view, it will be too easy for any person to run in the election and deprive the Election Committee members the right to support their favorite candidate.

Second, the democrats ask the Central Government to promise that the election of the Chief Executive in 2017 and the forming of the LegCo in 2020 will be conducted with universal suffrage.

But Ho said proceeding to universal suffrage has to comply with the "five steps" as Qiao Xiaoyang, deputy secretary-general of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, refered to last week. In other words, the SAR government needs to submit a proposal to the Central Government requesting changes to current electoral methods, before kicking off the four other procedures.

"The Central Government therefore says (the elections of the Chief Executive and the LegCo through) universal suffrage 'may take place' in 2017 and 2020 (respectively) but not 'must take place'," he explained. "The reason is that we still need to fulfill the other steps; the Central Government cannot impose an electoral package on Hong Kong."

The other steps include the proposal should secure approval by a two-thirds majority in the legislature; then the Chief Executive needs to endorse it before the Central Government would record, or approve, it.

Ho added that the real motive of the opposition camp's call to scrap the functional constituencies (FC) is to cancel the divisional voting system.

"The divisional voting system is an internal check and balance within the legislature like the bicameral system in foreign countries," he said. "Again, the FC is not worthless and what we should do is to improve and increase the representativeness of the FC."

China Daily

(HK Edition 04/20/2010 page1)