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Hong Kong Democrats Warned Over Leadership Race
Hong Kong (AFP) Sep 20, 2006 A senior Hong Kong democrat on Wednesday warned pro-democracy opposition parties that their decision to field a candidate in next year's leadership race could backfire. Veteran lawmaker Emily Lau said challenging Beijing-backed Chief Executive Donald Tsang could open the democrats to accusations of supporting the heavily weighted selection process. "We don't want to be accused to supporting the very thing we oppose most by joining in with it," said Lau, whose minority Frontier party is still debating whether to back a candidate. "I'm very hesitant to support this idea but if the intention is to promote democracy and expose how unfair the system is then I may consider it," she added. Democratic parties agreed at a meeting Tuesday to choose a joint candidate to run in March's leadership selection process. Although they don't expect to win, they want to prevent a repeat of the past two selection processes when the Beijing-backed favourite candidate ran unopposed. "By participating we hope to stimulate debate where there would have been none," said lawmaker Yeung Sum of the Democratic Party, the largest party in the pro-democrat bloc. "We would take the opportunity to participate in order to spread the word of universal suffrage," Yeung added. "We could expose the process for the sham it is." Democrats want to scrap the selection process, in which city leaders are chosen by a cabal of 800 mostly pro-Beijing elites, and replace it with a direct election in which candidates are voted in by universal suffrage. Hong Kong, a former British colony, became a largely autonomous territory of China in 1997. Its leadership selection process is enshrined in the post-1997 constitution with the proviso that it switch as soon as possible to universal suffrage. However, disagreements between democrats and the Hong Kong and Chinese governments over the timing of such a change have caused political tensions ever since. Tsang is considered a shoo-in for the next leadership race as he is the only politician in the city that has Beijing's trust, a credential more important than votes in the convoluted selection system.
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Bush Sounds Familiar Refrain
Washington (UPI) Sep 20, 2006President George W. Bush stepped to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday and exhorted the world to support moderate reformers in the Middle East to bring about peace and stability. |
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