HK chief: Decision ‘major step forward’
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CHINA’S top legislature yesterday decided that Hong Kong’s next chief executive will be elected by popular vote in 2017, but each candidate must be backed by more than half the members of a 1,200-strong “broadly representative nominating committee.”
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ruled out allowing “open nominations” in the inaugural election for Hong Kong’s leader, saying they would create a “chaotic society.”
A vote by universal suffrage must have “institutional safeguards” to take into account “the actual need to maintain long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong,” it said.
The nominating committee will pick two to three candidates, it added.
Li Fei, deputy secretary general of the NPC Standing Committee, said the decision marked a “key moment” in Hong Kong’s democratic development and was crucial to its current and future stability, as well as the fundamental interests of Hong Kong residents and foreign investors.
“This is a legal, fair and reasonable decision. It is a dignified, prudent decision, and its legal effect is beyond doubt,” Li said.
The Occupy Central group in Hong Kong has called on residents to protest and demand a referendum and public nomination of candidates.
Li told a news conference that openly nominating candidates would create a “chaotic society.” Noting that such “unpractical” calls had led to “a tremendous waste of time” in Hong Kong society, Li said that the “international standards” demanded by the group are “tailored only for their own interests and needs.”
“What they really want are not ‘international standards,’ but ‘personal standards,’” he said.
“These rights come from laws, they don’t come from the sky,” he said. “Many Hong Kong people have wasted a lot of time discussing things that are not appropriate and aren’t discussing things that are appropriate.”
Li said whether Hong Kong could achieve universal suffrage depends on the subsequent steps and called on “certain groups in Hong Kong to set aside prejudices and personal interests, showcase their political courage and wisdom ... to push forward universal suffrage in the 2017 election.”
“Some might say that if we don’t have universal suffrage in 2017, we could still redo everything in 2022. But I think if we miss the opportunity in 2017, Hong Kong may never have the chance to regain the lost momentum,” he said.
Li reiterated that candidates for Hong Kong’s chief executive should be loyal to the country and the Communist Party.
“He or she has to be responsible to Hong Kong and to the central government,” Li said. “If Hong Kong’s chief executive doesn’t love the country or love the Party, then that can’t work in one country.”
Under yesterday’s guidelines, Hong Kong’s 5 million eligible voters will be able to vote for the candidates selected by the nominating committee. Then, the chief executive-elect “will have to be appointed by the Central People’s Government,” the NPC Standing Committee said.
“Since the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and the sovereignty, security and development interests of the country are at stake, there is a need to proceed in a prudent and steady manner,” it said.
“It must meet the interests of different sectors of society, achieve balanced participation, be conducive to the development of the capitalist economy, and make gradual and orderly progress in developing a democratic system that suits the actual situation in Hong Kong.”
Leung Chun-ying, the city’s current chief executive, hailed the NPC’s decision as a “major step forward in the development of Hong Kong’s society.”
“If we are willing, the majority of Hong Kong people, and that is some 5 million people eligible to vote, will no longer be bystanders in the next election,” he told reporters.
Implementing universal suffrage for the selection of the chief executive represents a significant change in the political structure of Hong Kong, experts said.
The step is a sharp contrast to the past 156 years when there was no democracy for Hong Kong people under British rule, they said. It was after Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997 and under the policy of “One Country, Two Systems” that the region achieved prosperity, stability and democracy.
“Hong Kong has accomplished democratic progress it never enjoyed under the British rule of over 150 years,” said Chen Zuo’er, head of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies.
“I should congratulate the Hong Kong people today for being so close to universal suffrage.”
But some groups do not respect China’s jurisdiction over Hong Kong and even called on residents to protest so as to press authorities to accept their views.
The Occupy Central group said it would go ahead with its threat to take over the city’s Central financial district in protest, at an unspecified date.
A spokesman for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which operates the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, said contingency planning was being taken seriously.
“We have long had a specialist team that coordinates group response plans for scenarios that put at risk the continuing operation of the exchange or threaten the well-being or safety of our staff,” he said.
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