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Seminar on Constitutional Development
(24 May 2004)
Summing Up by Professor Edward Chen
(Translation)
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After today's our discussion, I reckoned that Hong Kong people were able to sit together to discuss problems in a rational manner. Participation was enthusiastic. The atmosphere was very harmonious.
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Although there were different views, we shared the same goal. For instance, there had been no objection whatsoever to democracy. We differed only on the question of the pace of democratization and how it should be tackled. Everybody would like to move towards a more democratic political system.
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As regards the selection of the Chief Executive, there seemed to exist among the groups a strong consensus. There was a common wish that more people would participate as candidates, and that the representativeness of the candidates would be enhanced. In order to win the support of all sectors, there should be an increase in the membership of the Election Committee. It
was also hoped that a more democratic method could be adopted to elect Election Committee members, thus allowing wider participation.
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Regarding the Legislative Council, there was of course much debate about the method for its formation. But it appeared that the majority view was in favour of an increase in the number of seats to help reduce the workload of the Legislative Council Members.
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The number of functional constituency seats might need to be increased. Now that a few years had passed after reunification, a review might be required to see what new sectors might be included in the functional constituency system, or whether consideration should be given to merging certain sectors.
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The discussion today was a very good start. For the first time, I saw Hong Kong people sitting together, calm and composed, to discuss an issue which was of great concern to all of us in a rational and enthusiastic manner. I thought the whole discussion was very good and hoped that this was only the beginning. This was also the wish of the Constitutional Development
Task Force.
(Please refer to the video recording for the floor speech.)
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