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Hong Kong must move forward on electoral reform: SCMP debate panellists

Panellists debate the way ahead for the chief executive election

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Ronald Arculli (left) joins debate panellists Jasper Tsang, Anson Chan and David Tang  with SCMP columnist Alice Wu at the Redefining Hong Kong debate. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong cannot afford to stand still on the subject of electoral reform, but must prepare for the arrival of universal suffrage in 2017 by debating the issue of constitutional reform.

That was the consensus, and a rare moment of unanimity, at the South China Morning Post's "Redefining Hong Kong Debate" yesterday. The panel consisted of four people with widely divergent views: Legislative Council President Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, often identified as pro-establishment; former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang, considered to be in the pan-democratic camp; businessman David Tang; and columnist Alice Wu.

The debate was timely. The government recently announced its plan to kick-start the consultation on electoral reform by the end of this year under the leadership of Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

"Standing still [on electoral reform] is not an option," said Tsang. "Not only will there be a general disappointment and resentment, but more importantly the past 16 years of experience … have exposed very serious flaws in governance," he said, referring to the city's handover from Britain to China in 1997. "There is no turning back. We have to move towards democracy."

He said that although the election method for the chief executive could still be polished after 2017, it was impractical for the government to introduce a "temporary proposal" for 2017.

"The [2017] proposal should satisfy Hongkongers' as well as lawmakers' demands … or else the arguments on that would never end," he said.

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