10 September 2006

In three days time, I will travel with my colleagues from the Liberal Party to Beijing for a series of meetings with mainland leaders.

After we sit down together and get the niceties out of the way, I expect the discussion to turn to more serious matters as we are asked: "How are things in Hong Kong?

That question will be the cue for us to let our national leaders know our hopes and fears, our expectations and our concerns, the things we are happy about and the things we are unhappy about.

So how should we reply? How really are things in Hong Kong? What are the issues that above all others we should draw to the attention of our national leaders?

Perhaps the most important ingredient that a delegation from Hong Kong such as ours can bring to a discussion of this kind is a sense of perspective.

Peering at our city across the miles from the Chinese capital through the avalanche of TV, media and official reports, it can sometimes be difficult for our leaders to gain a true sense of the mood in Hong Kong.

When thousands turn out on the streets demanding a date for universal suffrage, is that a real reflection of the way most people feel? When thousands march against the GST, does that mean every strata of society opposes it?

The onus is on us to use our experience of everyday Hong Kong life to give weight to those things we believe people feel most strongly about and to try to give a true reflection of the issues that matter most.

Those issues are not always the ones that dominate the international headlines. Reading newspapers overseas, you could be forgiven for thinking Hong Kong was locked into all-consuming debate about the rights and wrongs of democracy and the need to broaden our tax base.

And yet, as a poll of business leaders and opinion makers published in the South China Morning Post last week showed, the issues of universal suffrage and our narrow tax base are not even close to the top of the agenda for most people.

Rather, it is our environmental air pollution crisis and the widening rich-poor divide that these influential members of society consider our greatest challenges and the issues that should dominate Chief Executive's Policy Address next month. We will certainly bring these issues to their attention.

However, our constitutional development is arguably the single issue over which Beijing will have the greatest influence and the final say. It is, therefore, an issue we intend to address with clarity.

Our approach will be first to put the issue into perspective and then to relay the hopes and expectations of our party and our constituents.

We will tell our leaders that we support the election of the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2012. However, we will also tell our leaders that it has to be supported by two foundation stones if we want it to succeed.

Firstly, we believe that the nominating committee that selects the candidates for election should be broadly representative and acceptable both to Beijing's leadership and to the people of Hong Kong.

This process will involve careful consideration of the nominating committee's composition to ensure that it will put forward a balanced and representative selection of candidates for what will be an election of historical significance.

Secondly, we believe it is crucially important for Mr Tsang - if he is to continue as chief executive until 2012 - to broaden his support base to take us towards that historic date with a more people-represented leadership.

If we are to prepare ourselves for the giant leap of universal suffrage, we need to map out the foundation stones that would best serve Hong Kong along the way. The most important foundation stones that Mr Tsang can put in place between now and 2012 is a government recognized by people as one that listens while it leads.

That process requires the involvement of more elected representatives of the people in the making of the decisions that profoundly affect our lives and our livelihoods.

Governance is a two-way street. If an administration restricts its policy -making process to a small, closed circle of ministers, civil servants and advisors, it risks losing touch with the people on whom those policies are going to have the greatest impact.

We are already seeing the early signs of a rift between the administration and the people. The proposal for GST last month brought people who would never normally dream of taking part in a demonstration on to the street.

I have argued for some time now that Mr Tsang needs to form a more representative ruling coalition. The events of recent months, and the decline in his previously high popularity ratings, only serve to spotlight how urgent that need is.

The fundamental flaw in our system is that the government has not even a single vote in the legislative council. This makes it hard for the chief executive to win approval and provide funding for his policies and that flaw, if unchecked, will remain even after 2012.

Before deciding on policies and proposals, the chief executive needs to lend his ear not only to his closed circle of advisors but also to a broader forum of government-friendly elected political parties.

I make no apologies for wanting the Liberal Party, among others, to be included in that coalition.

I make no apologies for wanting to make the voice of the people we were elected to represent heard by the chief executive before he decides policies that have the potential to alter our political and social landscape.

Ours will not be a voice that will only say "Yes, chief executive". Ours will be a voice that debates policies before they are proposed, suggests improvements where we think it necessary, and is not afraid to sometimes disagree outright.

Most importantly, it will be a voice that will benefit the administration by helping it to become a stronger and more responsive leadership as it lays those foundation stones to universal suffrage.

We believe that only with the government's committed effort to build up the teamwork and partnership with its natural political allies in the legislature will universal suffrage in 2012 not be a leap into the unknown, rather an easy, natural stride for a confident administration that is in touch with its people and responsive to their needs.

This is a message that we have persistently put to the people of Hong Kong.

This is a message that we have repeatedly delivered to our government and our Chief Executive.

That is the message we will carry with us to Beijing this week.