Jasper Tsang says biggest regret in eight-year tenure is failure to bring pan-democrats and central government together
GARY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Tuesday, 05 July, 2016, 5:25pm
Interview with Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing in Tamar. 04JUL16 SCMP/ Sam Tsang
Outgoing Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing has urged the central government and political forces in Hong Kong to break the vicious circle of Beijing’s growing assertiveness towards the city’s affairs and the resultant backlash from Hongkongers.
Tsang, who is well versed in late Communist Party leader Mao Zedong’s thoughts, said conflicts within Hong Kong society as well as those between Hongkongers and Beijing were attributable to internal factors.
“Putting the blame on external factors doesn’t help,” he said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post on Monday.
The veteran Beijing loyalist said that during the first few years of the handover, state leaders repeatedly expressed confidence in Hongkongers being capable of running the city effectively.
“But they gradually realised things did not turn out as they previously wished. They may have underestimated the difficulties, perhaps being too simple and sometimes naive,” Tsang said, noting that as the Hong Kong government was unable to govern effectively, Beijing officials had been commenting on the city’s internal affairs more frequently.
“It has unavoidably sparked a backlash among some people in Hong Kong,” he said.
Tsang, who will retire after the Legco term ends in September, called on Beijing and political forces in the city to break the vicious circle.
He said building mutual trust between the central government and the pan-democrats was vital for breaking the deadlock.
“It will be the most important task of the next chief executive, who will lead Hong Kong into a very critical stage in the development of ‘one country, two systems’,” Tsang said.
He said next year would witness the 20th anniversary of the handover, which meant 40 per cent of the 50-year lifespan of “one country, two systems” would have elapsed.
“I may say it is make or break,” he said. “If we fail to convince the central government and most Hong Kong people that ‘one country, two systems’ can really work, then I don’t know what’s going to happen.
“If the central government sees Hong Kong to be more of a burden or liability than an asset to the country, then I don’t see any reason why the central government would still want to keep ‘two systems’ at all.”
Tsang said the biggest regret in his eight-year tenure as Legco president was his failure to bring together the pan-democrats, who enjoy the support of more than half the voters in Hong Kong, and the central government.
“For ‘one country, two systems’ to work, we need dialogue between pan-democrats and the central [government] in order to build up mutual trust,” he said.
“I thought I could do it. After two terms, I must say very little progress towards that direction [has been made], and that’s something I find rather regrettable,” he said.
But Tsang said it was a good sign that Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Wang Guangya called pan-democratic lawmakers “part of the establishment from the Basic Law perspective” in a recent interview with pro-Beijing magazine Bauhinia.
Citing Mao’s famous essay On Contradiction, Tsang said: “External causes are the condition of change, and internal causes are the basis of change. In a suitable temperature an egg changes into a chicken, but no temperature can change a stone into a chicken.”
“Looking at problems we face in Hong Kong now and conflicts between Hong Kong people, we should first try to find out the internal factors giving rise to these conflicts,” Tsang said.
“Putting the blame on external factors doesn’t help. External forces always exist and want to influence Hong Kong’s development. But if you put your own house in order, external forces can’t really upset you,” he said.
“People calling for separatism and Hong Kong independence won’t be convinced if you say they are instigated by external forces.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1985699/break-vicious-circle-assertiveness-beijing-and-backlash
