After 27 hours of marathon debate that lasted three working days, the Legislative Council finally passed the constitutional reform package, to move forward towards the implementation of universal suffrage in 2017. This was brought about by the last-minute concession from Beijing, agreeing to the "one man, two votes" treatment of the five new District Council functional constituency seats, as proposed by the Democratic Party.

This came as a great surprise, but knowing the Central Government, this goodwill gesture demonstrated two points. First of all, despite all the accusations by the dissidents, the Central Government is sincere about implementing universal suffrage in 2017 as announced by the decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee in 2007. The Central Government was in fact relaxing its interpretation of functional constituency election to accommodate the new arrangement against opposing views from certain quarters, not the least the pro-establishment camp here in Hong Kong.

Their sentiments were put in the open during the Legislative Council debate. It is quite understandable because their monopoly over communication with the Central Government, which is their strategic advantage over the Democratic Party is breached. From now on the pro-establishment camp will have to face more keen competition in the forthcoming elections, and they will have to try harder to keep their existing seats.

Should the Democratic Party win more seats, and still maintain its attitude of dissent, there is a risk that Hong Kong may be rendered ungovernable. The fact that the Central Government is willing to take this risk is a clear indicator of its great sincerity in promoting the democratic process in Hong Kong.

That brings us to the second point. It is clear that the Central Government wants to end all the political bickering related to constitutional development once and for all to maintain stability and harmony in Hong Kong. The fierce and derisive squabbling now has been proven to have been totally unnecessary, as the Central Government has been shown to be on the side of democratic development. The only difference now is the pace of reform, which is just a minor technical detail and can be sorted out through rational analysis and debate. We can then turn and concentrate our attention on the real issues that the city has to confront such as economic development and social justice. We are all aware that if we do not try hard in these critical areas we will be in big trouble. By helping us to clear the political problem, the Central Government is in fact giving us a big hand in tackling problems in other areas.

The author is a member of the Commission on Strategic Development.

(HK Edition 06/29/2010 page2)