By Coconuts Hong Kong October 22, 2014 / 12:48 HKT
CY Leung, after receiving a lot of flack for saying that Hong Kong can’t have a truly representational political system because otherwise the poor would be making the decisions, published a statement that attempts to clarify his comments.
(It was released during yesterday’smuch-anticipated talks between government officials and student protesters, because who cares about that?)
In the statement, Leung basically repeated what he said during the Oct. 20 interview with foreign journalists: a “'broadly representative' [electoral system to nominate candidates for the chief executive] is not just a question of absolute numbers; it is also a question of taking into account the needs and priorities of a broad range of sectors as much as we can”.
Yes, we heard you the first time, Leung.
In conclusion, poor people—who make up, as Leung said, half of Hong Kong population—are but one part of the society, and they should not be given too much weight compared to smaller, but “important” sectors, from which candidates for chief executive “must spend time and energy to cultivate [their] support”.
Such sectors include “catering, finance, import and export, transport, legal, medical, education, social welfare, agriculture and fisheries…” etc.
http://hongkong.coconuts.co/2014/10/22/cy-leung-tries-defend-comments-about-how-true-universal-suffrage-would-give-poor-too-much
