The Hindu : Tung to promote `people-based governance'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 08, 2004

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International

Tung to promote `people-based governance'

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE JAN. 7. The Hong Kong Chief Executive, Tung Chee Hwa, today pledged to promote "people-based governance". This followed the `pro-democracy' rally in Hong Kong on New Year's Day.

However, his critics within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China responded by noting that there was nothing really to cheer about in the perceived absence of any time-specific commitment to turn the territory into a full-fledged democracy. Delivering the annual policy address in the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Mr. Tung announced the formation of a task force to look at issues of "constitutional review" and to hold consultations with the authorities in Beijing. For over six years now, since Britain transferred its colonial possession of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, Beijing has administered the territory under the policy of "one country, two systems."

This policy, which guarantees Hong Kong a distinctive political and economic system of its own for 50 years is the governing principle of the Basic Law in relation to the territory. Mr. Tung acknowledged that the people's rallies in July last year, the first such major political protest, had brought home the `inadequacies' of the territory's governance under him. It was in this context that the Hong Kong Government "attaches great importance to constitutional review and will strictly follow the Basic Law in handling the matter", he said. A task force, to be headed by the Chief Secretary for Administration, "will therefore be established to seriously study the issues" relating to "the development of Hong Kong's political structure".

The crux of the proposed panel's mandate would be a salient provision to "consult the relevant authorities of the Central People's Government (CPG)" in Beijing. The other aspects of the mandate would cover "the understanding of relevant provisions of the Basic Law" itself, in the context of the political mood in Hong Kong, he said. "In view of the serious concern and principled stance of the CPG towards the development of Hong Kong's political structure, as pointed out by President Hu Jintao of China, .. there is a definite need to understand the full implications of these important issues before making appropriate arrangements for the constitutional development", Mr. Tung underlined.

His Government would, therefore, "encourage all sectors" of the Hong Kong community to explore the issues `rationally' and to express their views. The objective was to make "relevant constitutional arrangements .. as early as possible."

These pledges were, however, seen by Hong Kong's political activists as only a sop to them but a friendly gesture towards Beijing.

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