| Transcript of Secretary for Constitutional Affairs' standup briefing |
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The following is the transcript of a standup briefing by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Stephen Lam, before attending the launching ceremony of a photo book on the recipients of 2005 Honours and Awards at Hong Kong Central Library this (January 23) evening (English portion):
Reporter: Do you have any response towards the advertisement about universal suffrage, which the democratic camp posted today? SCA: The Chief Executive and the HKSAR Government are committed to promoting Hong Kong's democracy step by step in accordance with the Basic Law. We are fully alive and aware of the aspirations of the Hong Kong people and our community for early introduction of universal suffrage. And that is why back in November last year, we established the Commission on Strategic Development and one of the subjects which we are pursuing in that Commission is to discuss the modalities and a roadmap for attaining universal suffrage. The discussion has already begun. I believe it is helpful to Hong Kong community in terms of promoting better understanding of the steps which we need to take to achieve universal suffrage. We have an overall direction and that is, we should first establish the method for implementing universal suffrage, get a roadmap prepared and then we'll know how many steps we need to take, and for that matter, how much time is required for us to achieve the ultimate aim of universal suffrage. But in overall terms, it is helpful that different sectors of the community, different personalities with all sorts of political inclinations are now beginning to focus their attention on how we can attain universal suffrage. (Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.) Ends/Monday, January 23, 2006 |