Eden Y Woon: Letter to Hong Kong

Many people understandably are frustrated after hearing the National People's Congress announcement this past Monday regarding constitutional development in Hong Kong, whatever reasons Beijing gave for the decision. The disappointment is natural, as quite a number had thought that universal suffrage was the way to deal with the local governance problems in the past few years. Now some have even said they would boycott any further consultation. However, people can look at what has happened in another way. The NPC did say that revisions to electoral methods for 2007 and 2008 are possible, and Premier Wen Jiabao acknowledged this week that direct elections is still the ultimate goal for Hong Kong, so let us concentrate on the tasks which we must do as a community on constitutional development.

There are two major tasks facing us, one short-term and one longer-term. On the first, we can look forward to a period of "rolling up our sleeves" and trying to figure out how to revise the electoral methods for 2007 and 2008 and improve governance. A wide-ranging consultation will begin on what the community thinks these revisions ought to be, and we ought to concentrate our mind on how we can improve policy formulation and implementation through what kind of revisions. This consultation should be thorough, patient, and inclusive, and different ideas from all political spectrum and strata of society should be encouraged.

It is no surprise when we say Legco is functioning in a less than desirable way. How else can you explain why although the government has gotten low ratings from the public, so has Legco consistently gotten poor ratings. Is expanding Legco a solution? Is there a way to make Legco more representative, paying attention to some parts of the community which are under-represented, like middle class professionals? Should Legco representatives be elected differently in the functional constituencies? Should there be two chambers in Legco similar to Parliament in UK or Congress in the US? How do we address the concern by the business community that there must continue to be "balanced participation" in Legco?

And primary among the things that ought to be reformed is the relationship between Legco and the Executive branch. This often-confrontational relationship must be fixed, and communication with people of diverse views must be on a regular basis, with constructive dialogue and useful Legco views being the key, not just "show" and relentless criticism or boycotts.

In short, an inclusive government that places more responsibility on Legco should produce a more cooperative atmosphere and better policies. Devising structures that will include Legco members in key decision processes, giving them a sense of "ownership", even in an "Executive-led" government, should be a priority. In any society which does not have an entirely democratic system, the government needs to be doubly responsive. But it is a two-way street, with responsibility on both sides.

As for the election of the Chief Executive, should we reform the Election Commission and the way its members are elected? Should that commission be expanded to take in a wider segment of society? Should the nomination criteria be changed? Should the whole election process be made more meaningful with candidates fielding at an early date policy teams that can be presented to the public for debates on policies?

Let us not forget that the intense interest in democracy started this time in Hong Kong primarily because of unhappiness with government performance. Even many businessmen in Hong Kong who traditionally shy away from politics started to feel some reform is necessary as policies went awry. A structural reform thus should focus on how to improve policy making and implementation.

At present, the business community is dismayed that critical issues such as the budget deficit are not able to be addressed effectively in our political system, due mainly to the strained relationship between Legco and the Executive branch and the way policies are formulated and implemented. Now that there is a chance for us to make some adjustments to try to solve the structural problems that led to some of the performance problems, let us embrace this chance. The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce calls on the community to make its diverse views known to Donald Tsang's task force, which is heading this all-important consultation process.

The second task facing Hong Kong is a more long term one. Let us shift the focus away from a "date". Our Chamber has long called on Hong Kong to start the institution building that paves the road towards democracy. There are actually some institutions missing here but are common to other functioning democracies. The first thing we must do is to develop the still-fledgling political culture here, so that more people from more sectors of the community, especially business people, will enter into politics. This will help develop political parties in Hong Kong, a necessary component in any democracy around the world. Currently, political parties are not inclusive enough and are often "one issue" parties, thus there are too many of them. More political talents then will gradually surface. There has to be more in-depth discussion on issues, stimulated by products from more policy think tanks.

There has to be more civic education on political participation and on the concept of "one country, two systems". This concept, judging from what happened in the past few months, is clearly a concept fuzzy to many and means different things to different people. We cherish "two systems", but there is no doubt how the sovereign thinks in Beijing is of essential importance to every Hong Kong citizen.

And given the concern many business people have voiced about "welfarism" being adopted if universal suffrage is granted to the people because of the narrow tax base here in Hong Kong, we ought to start the work right now on broadening our tax base. Too few people pay taxes here-only 100,000, or 3% of the working population, pay 60 percent of the salary taxes here, and if that is not changed when we get a more representative government, then that can lead to a lack of interest in curbing public expenditures. That in turn can affect our economic prosperity. This is why our Chamber supports the Financial Secretary's current study of the feasibility of a Goods and Services Tax since that is one way to broaden the tax base.

When we do the institution building correctly, then we can be assured of a stable society which maintains its world-class economic system. And we can be assured of a world-class democratic political system.

So, there is plenty for us as a community to do, from consultations on 2007/2008 to institution building to pave the road to democracy. Meanwhile, life goes on in this vibrant economic city that still has many outstanding advantages. But we face problems in budget deficit, in economic re-structuring, in unemployment, in maintaining competitiveness, in economic integration with China, and we face challenges of business every day. We still need good policies from the current government. Whether we are facing these economic challenges or the political challenges, our goal is the same-to maintain economic prosperity and stability here. Let us get to work on the challenges.