"234" reorganization of the Legislative Council is not a good plan

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Written by: Commentary Editing Room

2021-03-07 14:40

Last update date: 2021-03-07 14:40

The fourth session of the 13th National People’s Congress is being held in Beijing. The seventh item on the agenda is the “Decision of the National People’s Congress on Improving the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Electoral System (Draft).” Rumor has it that direct elections for the Legislative Council will be reduced to 20. The functional constituency will be 30 seats, and the re-introduced Election Committee will occupy 40 seats.

However, this "234" plan is not suitable for Hong Kong.

First of all, according to Article 46 of the current Legislative Council’s Rules of Procedure, a bill proposed by the government can be passed without the support of more than half of the members, without the need for a division of votes.

In the "234" plan, it is believed that 40 of the 90 seats will be occupied by the election committee, which is almost half of the 90 seats. In addition, the "iron votes" of some functional constituencies mean that the government can promote the motion without considering direct elections. The opinions of groups and other sectors may not be conducive to good governance and good governance.

Secondly, the reorganization of the Legislative Council itself is already a major adjustment.

Although considering that the political mutual trust between the central government and the Hong Kong democrats has broken since the anti-amendment law turmoil, the central government wants to improve the safety factor through political reforms, the "234" plan is obviously overdone, and it can even be said to be overbearing. The plan hinders the next phase of mutual trust reconstruction.

It must be known that whether it is called "struggle" or "rectification", it is only a means at this stage, and it must serve a long-term goal.

The reorganization plan should be as lenient as possible, with the main premise of promoting a benign interaction between the central government and Hong Kong, and the ultimate goal of "one country, two systems" as stable and long-term.

A loose and gentle plan is more beneficial

In fact, as far as we know, such a conservative plan of "234" is just the position of some hardliners.

Even within the establishment, many people think that the plan should not be too strict.

After the fierce dispute, it is believed that the central government has decided to adopt the "333" plan, that is, regional direct elections, functional constituencies, and election committees each occupy an average of 30 seats.

Of course, from the perspective of the democrats, they can neither remove all of the directly elected seats nor have more than half of the functional constituencies. In the end, it is still almost impossible to obtain a "45+" in the Legislative Council to prevent the government's bill from being passed.

However, a looser plan will inevitably give the democrats greater political influence and stronger supervision of the government's administration.

More importantly, a looser plan is conducive to rebuilding mutual trust between the democrats and the central government and starting anew.

Talking about rebuilding mutual trust at this stage, some people may find it unrealistic.

But rebuilding mutual trust is never a one-and-a-half moment matter, but it takes a period of time for all parties to settle and digest.

In 2014, the Umbrella Movement broke out in Hong Kong, demanding that the central government take back the "831" political reform framework. The democrats rejected the political reform plan in the Legislative Council the following year. Who would have thought that Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and head of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Coordination Group, visited in May 2016 In Hong Kong, meeting with Emily Liu of the Democratic Party, Jiajie Leung of the Civic Party, Xiulan Ho of the Labor Party, and Guolin Li of the health service sector have facilitated the first meeting between the democrats and the highest official of the Chinese Communist Party after the return?

No one has a crystal ball and can predict future political developments. However, since "one country, two systems" is the central government's national policy for governing Hong Kong, and Hong Kong must retain its uniqueness, we believe that rebuilding political trust is the inevitable choice of the central government and Hong Kong.

Even if it is still in the stage of political rectification, it is more appropriate to adopt a more moderate plan, which is conducive to long-term development.

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