The "democracy camp" should be pragmatic and not persist in its demand for universal suffrage in the 2007 chief executive (CE) and 2008 Legislative Council (LegCo) elections, head of Hong Kong government's Central Policy Unit Lau Siu-kai said yesterday.

If the camp persists in making an impossible happen, it would only risk maintenance of status quo in the rules for the next CE and LegCo elections, he told China Daily.

Lau, however, conceded that the government didn't have much room to manoeuvre and it had to be careful not to lose the support of the government-friendly parties while trying to get the backing of the "democracy camp".

"It would be a lose-lose situation if the voting methods for the 2007 and 2008 elections remained unchanged because they would do no good to anybody," he said.

First, the central government would be a loser because there'd be no gradual and orderly progress towards democracy as stipulated in the Basic Law, Lau said. And then, the SAR government would be criticized for not doing enough for democratization.

That would also mean a failure of the "opposition" and its efforts for greater democracy. And society as a whole would be deprived of the chance to enjoy greater democracy at an earlier date, he said.

"Public sentiment has changed a lot over the past year and people's desire for democratization has moderated, although they are a bit disappointed that universal suffrage would not be possible in 2007 and 2008. People are in pursuit of democracy but they also desire stability, economic development and less social conflicts, Lau said.

"Right after the July 1, 2003, demonstration, people did not mind the `opposition party' gaining power. Now they find that the government and the chief executive are doing much better than before."

As required by the Basic Law, any new electoral method must be passed by two-thirds of LegCo members. Since there are 35 government-friendly members in LegCo, it is common wisdom that the government needs to secure only six "defectors" from 25 of the other camp. But Lau doesn't agree.

"The government doesn't have a solid support in LegCo. It cannot take it for granted that its usual allies would support the electoral reforms against all odds. It should avoid causing 'a fire in the backyard' by dissatisfying its allies just for the sake of getting some support from the other camp," he said.

The "democrats", he said, wouldn't lose a great deal of public support even if they change their stance to support the government's plan. "Public opinion is their political asset," said Lau. "They'll not stand against public opinion if people support the government's constitutional package, but they'll have greater room to manoeuvre if there are divided opinions."

He said "some of them may change and support the government if people are loud and clear about the government's suggestions being acceptable, though not perfect."

He didn't say whether the government should come up with one mainstream option only or several of them. Nor did he clarify if the options(s) should be complete with ancillary measures such as the size of the Election Committee and its electorate, the required number of nominations, and whether a confidence vote should take place even if there was only one candidate in the race for the chief executive's post.

Functional constituency

But he said that the number of functional constituency (FC) seats should be increased to allow more people to take part in politics. "This is a kind of positive development, although some argue FCs are anti-democracy and it would be very difficult to revert back once FC seats had been increased."

The top adviser supported Chief Executive Donald Tsang's proposal to overhaul the Executive Council. "This would allow more unofficial members to input more views from all quarters of the community in the cabinet."

He clarified: "Although the policy bureau heads do not attend the cabinet meetings regularly, it doesn't mean their authority has been slashed. Under the accountability system, they remain official members of the cabinet and have the duty and authority to implement policies approved by the cabinet."

(China Daily HK Edition August 5, 2005)