Thursday, November 18, 2004
Hong Kong 'guardians' attack referendum call
Agence France-Presse Hong Kong, November 18
Two mainland Chinese scholars who helped shape modern Hong Kong's political landscape have attacked calls for a referendum on the introduction of fully democratic elections, a media report said on Thursday.
Xiao Weiyun and Xu Chongde, part of the team that drafted the city's Basic Law mini-constitution in the 1980s, said the proposal by pro-democracy activists was a challenge to China's rule of the former British colony.
"The mini-constitution ... does not leave any room for any referendum," Xiao was quoted as saying in an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper.
"It would be a violation of the law if you bypass the relevant provisions (of the Basic Law) and are bent on going your own way."
Pro-democracy lawmakers have long called for citizens to have the right to elect their own leaders by 2007, when the Beijing-backed political chief Tung Chee-hwa must make way for a successor.
China refuses to cede to their requests fearing full democracy would destabilise the city and foment unrest among banned groups at home.
As a result, in April it issued a ruling quashing such a move, prompting half a million demonstrators to take to the streets in protest.
The furore led to democratic candidates making a strong showing in September legislative polls, in which they won 60 per cent of the vote, but thanks to the convoluted electoral system that left them with a minority of seats.
They have since sought dialogue with China in a bid to have the ruling reversed while at the same time are pushing for a non-binding referendum to establish a consensus on democracy, a proposal that has been met with harsh criticism from senior mainland and Hong Kong officials, including Tung.
Xiao and Chongde, two elderly academics the Post describes as the "guardians of the Basic Law", said the move would violate the April ruling.
"It is inappropriate for the lawmakers, who have sworn allegiance to the Basic Law, to push for a referendum after the decisions was made (in April)," Xu told the paper.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.