Page 57 - Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity

07-08 Statem ents

Response of Hong Kong Christian Council

“Green Paper on Constitutional Development”

As a Christian Ecum enical Body, HKCC believes that God creates human beings equal in nature and gives
us the rights and duties to rule the earth with am ple space for governance. W e hold that based on the principles
protected in the Basic Law of "One Country, Two Systems", HK people ruling HK and a high degree o f autonomy,
HK people can w ork together to establish universal suffrage. Therefore, we support the universal suffrage of
C hief Executive and all m em bers of Legislative Council and think that NPCSC giving an interpretation o f parts of
the BL that relate to constitutional developm ent in Hong Kong is not necessary. However, we respect and follow
the decision by NPCSC.

In our opinion, the discussions on the constitutional developm ent are not finished but enter into another more
im portant stage. Thus HKCC Justice and Social Concern Com m ittee continue to express its views actively. The
fundam ental principles to the 'T h e Third Report o f the Constitutional Developm ent Task Force" is as follow: first,
the pace o f the dem ocratic developm ent of Hong Kong should be speeded up and broadened, and eventually
universal suffrage should be established not later than 2012; second, the election method should be clear and
simple, and let all the citizens have the right o f equal participation:

1. The Method for Selecting the Chief Executive
• The C om position o f the Election C om m ittee:
Doubling the num ber o f present industrial, comm ercial and financial sectors, the professions, and the labour,
social services, religious and other sectors from 200 people to 400 people, while the num ber of the mem bers
of the Legislative Council, representatives of district-based organizations, Hong Kong deputies to the National
People's Congress, and representatives o f Hong Kong m em bers of the National Com m ittee o f the Chinese
People's Political C onsultative C onference rem ain unchanged, and adding all the elected m em bers o f the
District Councils (about 400 people now) to form a Election Com m ittee consisting o f 1800 people.

鲁 The number of members required for nominating candidate: candidate may be nominated jointly by not less
than 100 mem bers, but not more than 120 mem bers.

• The C hief Executive should be elected by universal suffrage as soon as possible, i.e. 2012, and the m ethod
for establishing the Nom ination Com m ittee is sam e as the Election Com m ittee.

2. The method for forming the Legislative Council
• M e th o d :
Continue the present arrangem ent w ithout change.

• T im e-table:
Canceling the functional constituencies by 2012, and all the seats being elected by direct election.

3. Others

• Making a clear tim etable for the constitutional developm ent as soon as possible.
• T he c o n s titu e n ts o f each o f the se cto rs o f E le ctio n C o m m itte e and th e c o n s titu e n ts o f fu n c tio n a l
constituencies of the Legislative Council, if possible, should be the individuals rather than the institutions.

• C hange directly elected geographical constituencies to "m ultiple seats m ultiple votes" instead o f the system
o f proportional representation.

• S tart im m ediately to establish the com plem entary arrangem ent and exploring the related issues such
as the relationship betw een the Executive and the Legislature, the evaluation o f the Principal O fficials
A ccountability System , Advisory and Statutory Bodies and the increasing pow er o f the D istrict Boards.