Most people in the city are sensible, rational and pragmatic, says Exco convenor Lam Woon-kwong
GARY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 19 January, 2016, 6:06pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 19 January, 2016, 6:06pm
Lam Woon-kwong says young people will realise soon enough that their future hinges on links with the mainland. Photo: David Wong
There is no need for the central government to worry about some radical groups in Hong Kong or distortion in the implementation of “one country, two systems” as most Hongkongers are rational, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s top adviser says.
Lam Woon-kwong, the Executive Council’s convenor, described Hong Kong as a “healthy community where the majority of people would not go to extremes.
“We need to trust the people of Hong Kong who are sensible, rational and pragmatic,” he said.
Lam’s views were in stark contrast to some mainland officials who lashed out at the rise of localism in Hong Kong.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying had slammed localist protests against mainland visitors and attacked student leaders for discussing self-determination for the city.
READ MORE: Mainland academic rings the alarm on the rise of ‘neo-localism’ in Hong Kong
“The central government need not worry too much about individual local groups holding radical views or the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ getting distorted,” Lam said.
The Exco convenor also said there was no need to worry about the apparently growing negative perception of the mainland among some young people in Hong Kong.
“Young people care the most about their personal future. They will realise before long their future will hinge on their link with the mainland,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lam lamented that Hong Kong’s legislature had been suffering from fragmentation that was reinforced by functional constituencies and the proportional representation system.
“By definition. functional constituencies cater for narrow interests,” he said.
Under the system adopted for Legislative Council elections since 1998, parties or non-affiliated groups rank candidates on lists. Their chance of winning a seat is based on a “quota” – obtained by dividing the number of valid votes cast in the constituency by the number of available seats.
READ MORE: How Hong Kong’s electoral system only discourages political moderates
If a party gets enough votes to meet the quota, it automatically wins a seat. Whoever gets the remaining seats is determined by ranking the so-called remainder votes.
Under the current system, having a small but fervent support base is enough to win a seat even if you go against the majority view.
“Political parties need not take into account the majority public opinion under the proportional representation system,” Lam said.
“But you can’t see when the light is going to come back again. We didn’t sign on the cheque [offering universal suffrage] last year and I can’t see another cheque will be presented to us again in the foreseeable future.”
He was referring to the rejection in June of the government package for electing the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2017, the prerequisite of electing all lawmakers by “one man, one vote”.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1902877/you-can-trust-hongkongers-chief-executives-top-adviser-urges
