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Interview ︱ Tan Yaozong: The promise of universal suffrage remains unchanged, but the central government must rest assured that the review mechanism will continue to exist

2021-08-31T23:39:00.057Z


Yesterday (August 31) was a "special" day for the development of democracy in Hong Kong. In 2014, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress issued the "8.31 Decision", which gave the final word on the universal election of the chief executive, but it was not accepted by the democrats.


Yesterday (August 31) was a "special" day for Hong Kong's democratic development.

In 2014, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress issued the "8.31 Decision", which gave a final word on the universal election of the chief executive, but it was not accepted by the democrats. This led to the 79th occupation incident, and the political reform plan was rejected the following year.

After experiencing a series of political turmoil since 2019, the central government has abandoned the "five steps" of the past political reforms and directly took action to "improve the electoral system" and implement "patriots ruling Hong Kong."

Now that the post-National Security Law and the new electoral system are about to unfold, how should Hong Kong people view the future political development?

What will happen to Hong Kong's Democracy Road in the future?


Tan Yaozong, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and one of the drafting committees of the Basic Law, admitted in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that since Hong Kong's democratic development has taken a crooked path in the past 20 years, the central government's goodwill has been trampled on.

He emphasized that the Basic Law’s commitment to double universal suffrage has remained unchanged, but the new electoral system needs to operate for a period of time. After the "central reassuring" has passed, the political reforms can be discussed after the conditions are available.

He clearly stated that the principle of "patriots ruling Hong Kong" will not change. After universal suffrage is achieved in the future, relevant legal systems and enforcement mechanisms, such as the candidate qualification review committee, need to continue to exist.



Civil Society and Democracy Road Series 2


Tan Yaozong said that since Hong Kong’s democratic development has embarked on a crooked path in the past 20 years and the central government’s goodwill has been trampled upon, it is necessary to bring the chaos out first.

(Photo by Zhang Haowei)

"How can democracy be achieved if one country, two systems are destroyed?"

Talking about the "Road to Democracy" in Hong Kong today seems to have a bit of "Tomorrow" feeling.

After Hong Kong has experienced political turmoil in the past two years, the central government has successively formulated the "Hong Kong National Security Law". The social and political atmosphere is high-pressure. Under the new electoral system, the threshold for democratic parties to participate in elections has increased significantly.

However, the "Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the General Election of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Method for the Formation of the Legislative Council in 2016" still exists today; Zhang Yong, deputy director of the Legal Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said in March this year that the original annex 1. The "Five Steps of Political Reform" in Annex 2 is no longer applicable, but the central government has "no change" to the goal of "dual universal suffrage"; Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, also clearly stated that Article 45 and Article 68 of the Basic Law do not apply. After changing one word and one punctuation mark, the goal of universal suffrage for the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council remains unchanged.

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Tan Yaozong pointed out that the basic purpose of improving the electoral system is to put the development of Hong Kong’s political system back on the track of healthy development. He mentioned that the central government has been vigorously supporting the development of Hong Kong’s democratic system over the past 20 years since the return to China. This has been done four times in 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2014. The decision laid a foundation for Hong Kong to achieve the goal of the Basic Law step by step. "Unfortunately, this sincerity was undermined by some people. Especially when the National People's Congress announced the "8.31 Decision", it was trampled by them (the opposition) and demanded to withdraw. With this decision, the 79th occupation incident occurred."

In the following years, the political system has been under constant impact. After the 2019 legislative amendments, the rule of law has disappeared. Some people have even tried to use loopholes in the electoral system to "gain the power of governance." Shortcomings, the previous crooked road is going further and further, and the one country, two systems are undermined, how can democracy be achieved? The National Security Law and the improvement of the electoral system are to correct the evil consequences of past problems." He quoted Xia, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. Baolong’s speech in July "We look forward to Hong Kong’s then that the democratic system will have greater progress, the rule of law will be more complete, and rights and freedoms will be more fully protected." This shows that the central officials are very supportive of the development of Hong Kong’s democratic system.

Refers to the new decision of the National People's Congress to ensure full governance

In continuation, Tan Yaozong mentioned that under the new electoral system, there will be three important elections in the next six months. It is only the initial stage. At least the next election must be completed first, and the new system will be put into practice for a period of time: "Let the (new system) effect first. Come out, emphasizing the principle of "patriots ruling Hong Kong". The people selected are all supporting one country, two systems, supporting the Basic Law and loyal to the SAR, safeguarding national security, sovereignty and development interests, and working together for the SAR and the country. You can rest assured. The central government has always promoted the development of the political system in accordance with the opinions and demands of the people of Hong Kong. It is just that the sincerity in the past has been trampled on. In the future, full governance will be ensured, and people and nature will make new regulations to make the system healthy. Develop rationally."

He emphasized that one-person, one-vote universal suffrage will not solve all problems immediately. The most important thing is to urge the government's policies and measures to always proceed from the interests of the people, and to do practical things and resolve social conflicts. In short, it is "good governance and good governance."

He lamented that Hong Kong used to pay too much attention to political struggles. What officials worry about every day is to find ways to deal with the opposition, hoping that these situations will not recur in the future.

Li Jiachao, chairman of the Candidate Qualification Review Committee and Chief Secretary for Administration, announced the results of the qualification review for the election committee election a few days ago.

(Information Picture/Photographed by Zhang Haowei)

It is expected that after the double general elections, the review of the review committee will continue to exist: there will always be trouble without an implementation mechanism

Under the aforementioned background, Tan Yiu-chung made it clear that if Hong Kong achieves democratic universal suffrage in the future, some current legal systems and enforcement mechanisms will continue to exist. "Many times we need some systems and mechanisms to enforce some important principles. Some principles, the Basic Law "Included is not a new thing, but there is no enforcement mechanism, and it will eventually "crash." With these mechanisms, it is possible to prevent someone from using elections to disrupt one country, two systems and paralyze the SAR government. This is unacceptable."

When asked whether it means that the qualification review committee and the National Security Committee will continue to participate in the evaluation of candidate qualifications, Tan Yaozong said: "We must consider this way, just as if no one breaks the law, it does not mean that we do not need the law. There must always be an enforcement. Mechanisms to prevent similar things from happening. Just like Article 23, some people thought that there would be no problem if it was gone, but in the end they found that people would take advantage of it in the long run. Therefore, these legal systems and enforcement mechanisms must continue to exist for the system to be complete , To achieve preventive effects."

Hope that all members of the Election Committee will not be restrained by the overall situation

When it comes to "good governance and good governance," this is naturally everyone's ideal of government governance.

However, the practical difficulty is that even if there is no political dispute, the establishment will have different opinions on people's livelihood policies. In particular, the functional constituency of the Legislative Council involves many industry interests. Some policies that touch the interests of the business community but benefit the people's livelihood are ultimately hindered, such as first-hand buildings. Vacancy tax hits the rocks and ends, consumer cooling-off period, beauty industry supervision, etc., have been discussed for many years without substantial progress.

Tan Yaozong believes that the above situation can be improved after the election system is improved. Under the new system, the 40-seat Legislative Council will be elected by the Election Committee. Under "quantitative change drives qualitative change", policies can be considered from the overall Hong Kong situation: "For government policies, It is natural for society to have different opinions. In the past, deliberate delays due to political purposes are another matter. Directly-elected members are particularly concerned about regional issues, and functional constituencies tend to cause some disputes due to tensions in the interests of the industry. After the election system is improved, there will be some disputes. The 40 seats are selected by the Election Committee. I hope they can proceed from the overall situation and do not necessarily have to be influenced too much by the opinions of regions or sectors."

In the past two years, Hong Kong’s society has been torn apart at an unprecedented rate. It is not only the democrats, but the establishment has also intensified, attracting attention and gaining political capital by constantly inciting social contradictions on the Internet.

As the DAB’s conference adviser, Tam Yiu-chung reminded that Hong Kong can no longer rely solely on political struggles to operate in the future. It must make substantive achievements in people’s livelihood policies. "Xianlu" talent pool ""There will be people in any camp who speak irritatingly. If some people speak too much, they will be criticized and learned from society and on the Internet. The most important thing is to accept different opinions. Be reasonable, don’t be verbally abused.”

The anti-sanctions law is not included in Annex III. Tan Yaozong: More time to consider emphasizing that the Central Committee supports the Hong Kong Economic People’s Congress to postpone the "Anti-Sanctions Law" to be included in Annex III. 5. Discuss the inclusion of Annex III of the Basic Law. Tan Yaozong said that organizations should not continue if they are harmful to national security. Deng Pingqiang: Will complete Article 23 legislation

01News

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-08-31

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