Preconditions necessary

The two preconditions for the chief executive (CE) election by universal suffrage announced by Qiao Xiaoyang, director of the National People's Congress (NPC) Law Committee, has won widespread support from Hong Kong residents.

The undeniable reality is that the two preconditions - CE election by universal suffrage must be proceed according to the Basic Law and relevant decisions of the NPC Standing Committee; and those who oppose the central government cannot be CE - must be met before any operational plan for CE election by universal suffrage can be discussed because, if a consensus cannot be reached on these preconditions, it is impossible to agree on an operational plan.

The central government has made its stand and its bottom line on the CE election by universal suffrage very clear. Amid enthusiastic discussions about detailed plans for such an election, some people have vowed to launch an illegal "Occupy Central" campaign to force the central authorities into accepting their demand, while some others insist on using the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as the "standard" instead of the Basic Law and relevant decisions of the NPC. Fierce as those people may look, most Hong Kong residents are rational and pragmatic toward the issue and respect the central government's constitutional authority.

An outstanding issue, which is yet to be discussed and agreed upon in the public debate over the CE election by universal suffrage, is the democratic process of nominating CE election candidates; and the other is how many candidates can be nominated. Article 45 of the Basic Law stipulates the candidates in the CE election by universal suffrage shall be nominated by a widely-representative nomination committee through a democratic process. Here a nomination committee means institutional nomination, while a democratic process can be summarized as the minority being subordinate to the majority.

This is an excerpted translation of a Wen Wei Po editorial published on April 11.

(HK Edition 04/12/2013 page1)