By Emily Lau

One of Hong Kong’s most outspoken and popular politicians, Emily Lau leads The Frontier party.

Next year brings the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Hong Kong’s next chief executive, who leads the local government’s executive branch, will take office on July 1, 2007. The “election” to this post is slated for March 25, 2007, with only 800 people qualified to vote.

Ten years after the British handover of sovereignty to China, the lack of progress on democratic political reforms has turned Hong Kong into an international laughing stock and will cast a shadow over the anniversary celebrations.

On October 31, Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration Rafael Hui told a London audience that Hong Kong needs to forge a community consensus about the model for implementing universal suffrage. He said that for Hong Kong to seriously move forward, all the principal players -- the democratic camp, other factions in the Legislative Council (Legco), the business sector and the government – must achieve “a meaningful compromise” based more on trust and less on fundamentalism and posturing.

But Mr Hui neglected to tell his audience that Donald Tsang has done little to foster trust between the various parties since becoming the chief executive in June 2005 after the abrupt resignation of his predecessor, C.H. Tung.

Mr Tsang made a good start by leading all the members of Legco to visit the neighboring Guangdong province in September 2005. For years, Beijing has banned many pro-democracy Legco members from visiting the mainland. Although the 2005 visit was called a breakthrough, the ban remained thereafter.

In his London speech, Mr Hui referred to Legco’s rejection of Mr Tsang’s political development package in December 2005, but didn’t mention that Mr Tsang had refused to discuss the package with the 25 pro-democracy legislators. In fact, Mr Tsang has never met the pro-democracy legislators to discuss constitutional reforms, nor to explore ways to a “meaningful compromise”.

A small number of people are participating in activities relating to the “election” of the 800-member Chief Executive Election Committee on December 10, which ironically happens to be International Human Rights Day. The committee will choose the next chief executive.

These small-circle-election activities generate little excitement because most Hong Kong people can’t take part. Of the 3.2 million registered voters, only 220,000 people have the right to vote.

Furthermore, many people regard the choice of the chief executive as a foregone conclusion. Seeing no more suitable candidate, Beijing will endorse Mr Tsang for another term. Since Beijing wants the “election” to be under control, it’ll probably be a one-horse race, as on previous occasions.

To prevent surprises in the Election Committee election, officials of the Central Government Liaison Office have worked overtime to co-ordinate the nominations and to warn off unwelcome candidates.

The Civic Party has put forward its member and legislator, Alan Leong, as a potential candidate for chief executive, and he is supported by some members of the pro-democracy movement. Given Beijing’s desire for a tightly controlled “election”, it’s doubtful that Mr Leong will gain the required 100 nominations from the Election Committee to become a validly nominated candidate.

The Election Committee is dominated by business and professional people, many with business and professional ties on the Chinese mainland making them susceptible to pressure. Some simply refrain from standing for election. Others do what they’re told by Beijing.

Since corporate votes choose almost half the Election Committee seats, companies and pro-Beijing organisations gain an inordinate amount of influence.

As previously, many real-estate tycoons are nominated and certain to be “re-elected”. They include Li Ka-shing and his son Victor of Cheung Kong (Holdings), the Kwok brothers of Sun Hung Kai Properties, Peter Woo of Wharf Holdings, Lee Shau-kee of Henderson Land Development, Stanley Ho of Shun Tak Properties, Gordon Wu of Hopewell Holdings, Henry Cheng of New World Development and Vincent Lo of Shui On Properties.

When nominations for candidates to the 800-member Election Committee closed, 373 candidates were elected unopposed. On December 10, only 427 seats will be filled.

For decades, Hong Kong real-estate developers have prospered and been given extraordinary political influence. In fact, the political system is tailor-made on their behalf. The Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, provides these people and the professionals working for them, like lawyers, accountants, building contractors, engineers and architects, with a big say in choosing political leaders.

Despite their political clout, the developers are not answerable to the public. On important occasions, they’re invited to Beijing to give their views to the leaders. At these closed-door meetings, they exert influence that may clash with Hong Kong’s public interest. This explains why Hong Kong policies are skewed in favour of the real-estate sector.

In London, the chief secretary said that Hong Kong needs a meaningful compromise. But there’s no dialogue between the pro-democracy legislators and the developers. In fact, there’s never been such a dialogue.

Nor is there a dialogue between the pro-democracy camp and the Central Government in Beijing. Mr Tung did nothing to facilitate such dialogue, and Mr Tsang made only a small gesture.

Obviously, the Central Government and the real-estate developers see no need for dialogue with the pro-democracy camp because they don’t want to change the political system.

If the Tsang administration doesn’t act to break this impasse, Hong Kong’s constitutional development will remain blocked in a cul-de-sac. Then the public’s only recourse is to take to the streets.

ARCHIVES

Rafael Hui: misleading in London.


Donald Tsang: misleading in Hong Kong.


Emily Lau: 'Denied democracy
makes Hong Kong a laughing stock'.