Audrey Eu: Speaking Notes for the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of the House of Commons of Canada
The continued prosperity and stability of Hong Kong as one of Asia’s international city under the “One Country Two Systems” concept with a genuine respect for the Hong Kong systems and core values, such as freedom of the press, rule of law, clean and efficient government is beneficial to the whole world including Canada. However this is currently under threat with the lack of progress towards genuine constitutional reform and universal suffrage.
For many years, Hong Kong has been waiting for universal suffrage. It was promised for 2007 and 2008, ten years after the handover from Britain to China. This was denied by the decision of the National Peoples’ Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) in 2004. We waited for 2012. This was again denied by the NPCSC decision of 2007 which promised universal suffrage of the CE in 2017.
When the government first began the consultation for the method of CE election in 2017, the paper was headed “let’s talk”. So Hong Kong people talked about the methods we would like. Yet our hopes were dashed by the Decision of the National Peoples’ Congress Standing Committee made on 31 August 2014 (the 8-31 Decision). It came up with a method that no Hong Konger, not even the most conservative, has dared talked about.
Based on the 8-31 Decision, the Hong Kong government has recently announced the proposal which will be put to a vote by our Legislature towards the end of June.
There will be no more than two to three candidates and they must be endorsed by the Nominating Committee (NC). The NC is what we call a “small circle” made up of 1200 people (only 0.01% of HK total population). Its composition is the same as the Selection Committee (SC) which used to elect the CE. From past experience, the great majority of its members are heavily influenced and controlled by Beijing. For example, in 2002, despite the overwhelming public dissatisfaction with the incumbent CE, Mr. Tung, almost 90% of the members of the SC endorsed Mr. Tung as the only candidate and he was declared elected by the SC as the only viable candidate.
Nomination will be a two step process. First you need to be endorsed by 10% of the NC, so theoretically there can be as many as ten candidates. Then there is a second step pre-election by secret ballot where only the top 2 to 3 who get the majority support of the NC can become a candidate for the CE election. This means a prescreening of candidates by Beijing to ensure only those accepted by them can go through. This method of election has been compared to North Korea and Iran.
The 27 democrats in the Hong Kong Legislature have sufficient votes to block this proposal and they have already vowed to do so as it fails to meet international standards for universal suffrage guaranteed by our Basic Law. The Government told the public not to have illusion of any last minute changes. They would not even propose changes which are open under the local law, for example changing the corporate votes to directors votes, adjusting the distribution of seats so some sector like agriculture and fisheries would not have a disproportionate 60 out of 1200 seats in the NC, allowing two rounds of votes to ensure the pre-screened candidate would have majority public support or allowing protest votes to be counted etc.
Not only is the long cherished hopes of democracy dashed, the lack of mandate makes governance extremely difficult, if not possible. The proposal, whether it can be passed or not, will only cause even greater rift in the society and does nothing to alleviate the “deep rooted divide” which is acknowledged to exist in Hong Kong.
Instead of tackling the real problem, the government blames the media, youths, and foreign influence. It believes that the solutions lie in interference with the media, manipulation of university appointments, the introduction of braining washing national education or Mainland exchange experience and high handed arrests and prosecutions.
Many students and ordinary citizens have been arrested, and later prosecuted arising from their participation in the Umbrella Movement or related protests. Not surprisingly, hasty prosecutions led to acquittals and the judges criticized the police for giving testimony proven false by the videos taken by members of the public. However this led some pro-establishment legislators to criticize judges with the remark “Police catch people but judges release people”. The former Deputy Commissioner of ICAC who was one of CY Leung’s campaign team even said that judges should be required to declare their political stance.
In contrast to the many arrests and prosecutions, the Commissioner of Police has refused to disclose the names of 7 police officers involved in the brutal attack of one peaceful protester (for completeness I declare he is a member of my party). His hands were tied behind his back and carried facedown to a dark corner where one officer stood guard and the others took turns to kick and punch him for some 4 minutes whilst he was lying motionless on the ground. Although the event took place more than 6 months ago on 15 October 2014, no prosecution has yet been brought. The 4 minutes attack was captured by a television crew and the footage was aired on their station in the early hours of that morning. When the senior management woke up that morning and saw the clip, instead of commending the scoop, they chastised the news team. It led to removing the person responsible to a different post and other repercussions for the news team. That also tells you something about the state of our press. In their 2014 report, the Hong Kong Journalist Association said “The year under review has been the darkest for press freedom for several decades, with the media coming under relentless assault from several directions. There have been attacks on journalists, sackings and personnel changes affecting critical personalities and the withdrawal of advertising, which places pressure on the editorial integrity of publications.”
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce described Hong Kong as “the most Canadian City in Asia” as well as “Canada’s gateway to China”. They emphasize their belief in “free enterprise, rule of law, ethical business practices, entrepreneurship, social responsibility and environmental responsibility”. I believe we share common goals. The current impasse on universal suffrage poses a serious threat to Hong Kong as we know it.
We hope Canada will join hands with the International community for stronger engagement with Hong Kong at both government and civil society levels in ensuring that the Sino-British Joint Declaration with respect to “One Country Two Systems, Hong Kong People ruling Hong Kong with a High Degree of Autonomy” is honoured and respected, and that Hong Kong has the constitutional reform that meets with international standards and that will ensure that we continue to be a vibrant city.
Audrey Eu
2nd May 2015
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