'Civil nomination' illegal

Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit, who is a big-shot lawyer by trade, said on a radio program the other day that he "cannot see" how the "civil nomination" format proposed by the Alliance for True Democracy and his party violates the Basic Law: "If you take a look at Article 45 of the Basic Law, it says very clearly that Chief Executive (CE) election candidates shall be nominated by a broadly representative nomination committee through a democratic process."

Leong's words are totally meant to mislead the public, because the Basic Law contains nothing about "civil nomination" and he was attempting to reduce the nomination committee to a rubber stamp. That is why it goes against the Basic Law and relevant decisions of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong SAR, pointed out in a written reply to Leong earlier this month that "civil nomination" totally ignores relevant provisions of the Basic Law, adding that "legal professionals should know better than others the importance of the rule of law and never cross the line." It appears Leong has abandoned the basic code of conduct of legal professionals in order to satisfy his own political needs.

Article 45 of the Basic Law stipulates that the ultimate goal of Hong Kong's democratic development is the election of the CE and members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) by universal suffrage; and CE election candidates will be nominated by "a broadly representative nomination committee", meaning it will be an institutional nomination process instead of an individual one.

"Civil nomination", on the other hand, relies on individual voters and anyone who has collected a certain number or more of voter signatures can stand for CE election. If "civil nomination" is adopted the term "broadly representative" will be irrelevant, as the nomination committee is redundant. In that case shouldn't the Basic Law be rewritten with "civil nomination" replacing references to the nomination committee?

The author is a current affairs commentator. This is an excerpted translation of his column published in Wen Wei Po on Sept 23.

(HK Edition 09/24/2013 page1)