Ill-conceived 'goalie theory'

Public debates over how universal suffrage should be implemented in the 2017 Chief Executive (CE) Election have been focused on a controversial proposal known as the "goalie theory" lately, which is designed to ensure that opposition politicians are in the running for CE election candidacy by ignoring the central authorities' right to set the rules and oversee Hong Kong's constitutional development as well as relevant provisions in the Basic Law.

The "goalie theory" has the central government acting as the goalie in soccer games and exercising the final veto power to shut anyone it deems unfit for CE election candidacy out of the nominations. That will eliminate the possibility of an opponent of the central government taking the position of CE. Too bad this plan was born with several fatal flaws:

First, it completely ignores the fact that Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China directly under the jurisdiction of the central government. By stripping the central government of its power to adjudicate over Hong Kong's CE election and reducing it to a mere goalie, the opposition will be able to have its own candidate in the CE race and may even win it.

Second, it will take the Basic Law, which sets the principles and rules for the implementation of universal suffrage in Hong Kong, out of the picture, so that the opposition can put its own candidate (s) in the CE election despite the central government's objection, because they won't have to satisfy the prerequisite of being patriotic. That also means the nomination process will become a formality and the central government may not be able to prevent an opposition politician from winning the CE election because, third, the "goalie" format will allow the opposition camp to turn Hong Kong's CE election into an open-to-all circus where the audience can affect the performers with cheers or jeers and determine their popularity. The central government, meanwhile, may have to yield to "international pressure" and let the opposition "score" or fend for itself against attacks by furious foreign "fans" of the opposition side.

The author is a current affairs commentator. This is an excerpted translation of his article published in Hong Kong Commercial Daily on Sept 5.

(HK Edition 09/06/2013 page9)