PRESS STATEMENT
15 September 1997
Martin Lee's Response to Hong Kong Chief Secretary Anson Chan's Statements on Democracy in Hong Kong
In a major speech today to the American Chamber of Commerce, Chief Secretary Anson Chan made a number of comments about democracy and Hong Kong's electoral system, including what appears to be a defense of the new electoral law which will disenfranchise a large number of Hong Kong voters. Mrs. Chan stated, "We all of us know there is no universal truth about the perfect election," and that what she did "...not accept is the charge that our arrangements will set back the cause of democracy in Hong Kong."
Democratic Party Chairman Martin Lee termed the Chief Secretary's remarks "highly unfortunate" and strongly disagreed with Mrs. Chan's defense of the new election law as setting Hong Kong "firmly on the road to universal suffrage." In response to questioning about the Chief Secretary's statements, Mr. Lee commented:
"It is preposterous to say that Mr. Tung's new electoral system is not a great leap backwards for democracy. There is no way at all to fudge the acknowledged fact that 2 million fewer Hong Kong people will have a vote in 1998 than did in 1995. If we are really moving forward -- then why is it we have to go backwards first?
The bottom line is that any electoral system that does not faithfully reflect the public will as expressed through the ballot box is by definition a bad system. And we already know that in this electoral system the political group which always wins the highest percentage of the popular vote will end up with the smallest number of seats. This is by no stretch of the imagination democratic progress."
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