Electoral reform hot topic for Hong Kong

Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997. At that time, Beijing made an agreement with Britain that under a law called the Basic Law, all the civil liberties which were existent in Hong Kong at the time of the hand over would remain in place for at least 50 years, by which time it is envisioned, by the pro-democracy camp at any rate, that the Special Administrative Region will be fully democratic at any rate.

Currently Hong Kong is in the no man’s land of democracy; its government system is officially called a non-sovereign partial democracy with unelected executive.

This means that the Hong Kong public get to vote for 30 of the seats in the 60 seat legislative council, based on geographical constituencies, while Beijing, through an appointed 800-member body, selects the Chief Executive and Chinese business elite (guided by Beijing, no doubt) select the people to fill the other 30 seats in the council.

Pro-democracy versus pro-Beijing groups is what has characterized the politics of Hong Kong since the hand over in 1997. There have been instances in recent years of intense opposition between the two groups such as in 2002 when Hong Kong news media reported that the Chinese government wanted to amend Article 23 of the Basic Law in order to bring anit-subversion laws under their jurisdiction.

Under the joint Sino-British agreement in 1997 it was held that Hong Kong’s judiciary would enact and enforce its own anti-subversion laws, Beijing, and its pro-Chinese camp in Hong Kong, wanted to change this, but the attempt resulted in unprecedented opposition and led to the resignation of two members of the legislative council.

That bill was ultimately shelved.

Now, it seems five members of the legislative council are hoping to achieve something similar with their recent resignations in January. The move meant that by-elections had to be held, which they hoped would bring about electoral reform, or debate about the issue at the very least, which would put pressure on Beijing to move ahead with allowing the entire legislative council and the Chief Executive to be elected by the people of Hong Kong only.

Movement towards a full democracy in Hong Kong has been slow going and the five members of the council are hoping that by resigning and being relected they will put pressure on Beijing to set a definite timetable for electoral reform.

It has not gone as planned though. In May, Hong Kong news media reported that not all the pro-Chinese political parties had contested the vacated seats, meaning that the outcome of the election would lack democratic integrity.

The issues is further complicated by the refusal of the Democratic Party, one of Hong Kong’s three main pro-democracy parties, to contest the seats, which essentially leaves only the five members who resigned to contest in a one-man election for each seat.

In addition, only around 20% of the population ended up taking part in the vote, making it meaningless.

They will not be able to send the message to Beijing they’d hoped to send then.

The Democratic Party has categorized the resignations and forced by-elections as too overt a challenge to Beijing, they instead see moderation and ongoing dialogue as the best course to securing full democracy for the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong.

Pro-democracy opponents meanwhile have called the by-elections a “non-event” and a “farce”.

Pro-Chinese supporters believe that the split in the pro-democracy camp represents a gathering acceptance of Hong Kong’s dependence on mainland China for economic growth and prosperity and see eventual absorption into the Chinese government as inevitable.

Hong Kong is one of the busiest ports in the world though, and although China is largely responsible for the recent resurgence in economic growth of 8%, the mainland relies on the island as much as the island relies on the mainland. Hong Kong is a big, bright feather in the cap of a government trying to mainstream itself in international politics and the former British territory of Hong Kong is its gateway to the west.