Eddie Luk
Friday, September 05, 2014
Hong Kong's last governor, Chris Patten, was slapped down by National People's Congress Standing Committee member Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai for criticizing Beijing on political reform.
"I don't understand what Patten is talking about," Fan snapped, saying Patten needed to check the Sino-British Joint Declaration on 1997's restoration of Chinese sovereignty before arguing.
Patten, the governor from 1992, wrote in the Financial Times that Britain had to stand up for democracy in the SAR, adding: "No one envisaged that, 30 years after the Joint Declaration, a fair electoral system would still be beyond the horizon."
Fan, one of the 170-strong NPC Standing Committee members who voted for the framework for the 2017 chief executive elections last Sunday in Beijing, said the Joint Declaration only mentions that the chief executive was to be appointed by the central government "on the basis of the results of elections or consultations to be held locally. It does not mention universal suffrage."
Sounding off after a radio talk show, Fan added: "Now there are debates on the electoral arrangements in the implementation of universal suffrage."
It was at this point that Fan said Patten "should take a look at the declaration document," and then went on to point out that selection of the chief executive based on universal suffrage was actually stated in Article 45 of the Basic Law.
The Chief Executive's Office also responded to Patten's commentary. "Before Hong Kong's
return to the motherland all governors of Hong Kong were not elected by Hong Kong people," it pointed out."Second, the Sino-British Joint Declaration does not provide for universal suffrage at all.
"Third, Hong Kong's constitutional development under the Basic Law is an internal affair of our country and a matter for the central authorities and our people to decide."
Patten had opened his commentary by saying "the latest political convulsion in Hong Kong has been caused by electoral arrangements proposed by the National People's Congress, which would prevent democrats and others of whom China might disapprove from seeking election as chief executive in a vote of Hong Kong's citizens."
After saying he hoped a compromise could be found, Patten argued that Britain has "a continuing moral and political obligation to ensure that China respects its commitments" to guarantee Hong Kong's way of life for 50 years from 1997."
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=149195&sid=42931544&con_type=3
