Guest Comments by Au Yeung Chi Fei

The writer represents the Civic Party, a political group at the forefront in Hong Kong’s long battle for meaningful universal suffrage.

HONG KONG – Yesterday, Hong Kong's government announced an amendment to its 2012 constitutional-reform package. Tomorrow, the package goes to the Legislative Council (Legco).

To attain true universal suffrage, there are two conditions: no pre-selection of candidates in chief-executive elections and no functional constituencies in LegCo elections. The reform package touches on neither of these.

The Civic Party has deep concerns that the new package deviates from the path to true universal suffrage and may provide an excuse for functional constituencies to remain forever. Chief Executive Donald Tsang has not kept his 2007 election promise to propose an ultimate political-reform package with a roadmap and timetable for universal suffrage. A one-step-at-a-time approach means that political-reform controversy will recur and cause serious rifts every five years.

The election system for LegCo is Hong Kong’s internal affair. Yet it's clear that the whole business is led by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government (Beijing). Last month, the Liaison Office's deputy director, Li Gang, said the latest proposal (yesterday's amendment) contravenes a 2007 National People's Congress decision and the original intent of Basic Law. Soon after, other Chinese government representatives echoed Li's initial view. But in recent days, the Liaison Office and then all the others changed their positions. The Civic Party feels concern that the law has been used for political expediency.

With the reform package so important to Hong Kong society, it's unacceptable for the local government to introduce an amendment two days before LegCo votes on it. Details about nominations for the five new LegCo seats or how the latest reform package may affect functional constituencies aren't presented to the public. At the very least, the government should withdraw the package and consult the public again.

The Civic Party's five legislators will vote against this reform package and urge the Hong Kong government to provide a roadmap for the abolition of functional constituencies and the achievement of true universal suffrage as soon as possible.

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