HK awaits vital year in constitutional reform

The NPC Standing Committee's decision came on Aug 31 after the Hong Kong government submitted a political reform plan. In short, the decision says the number of members, organization and selection method of the Hong Kong nomination committee should be in accordance with that of the election committee for the CE election in 2017. This means the 1,200 committee members will still represent four sectors of society (industrial, commercial and financial sector; professional fields; labor representatives; and religion leaders) and their ratio will remain the same; CE candidates must get more than half of the nomination committee's votes to contest the election; and the number of CE candidates will be limited to two or three.

The pro-democracy camp reacted strongly to the NPC Standing Committee's decision, alleging that it was an attempt to thwart Hong Kong's universal suffrage project for 2017. The protests galvanized into the "Occupy Central" campaign that started on Sept 28 and lasted two and half months, with the demonstrators and their organizers claiming their protests were for the good of Hong Kong. But the only thing the "Occupy Central" campaign has done is to extract a heavy price from Hong Kong society.

The Basic Law and the system it has helped establish are respected by Hong Kong society, which shows that the "Occupy Central" movement was illegal. Hong Kong is a mature society ruled by law and thus has enough space for political dissent and peaceful protests. But "Occupy Central" was neither, because of its proclivity for violence and intemperate action.

Next year will be crucial for the development of democratic politics in Hong Kong. The second round of political consultations will start in 2015, and the Legislative Council will vote on Hong Kong's constitutional reform project advanced by Hong Kong SAR government. The central government's attitude toward the development of universal suffrage in Hong Kong has been consistent, and Hong Kong residents have reached four agreements on Hong Kong CE's election. Considering Hong Kong's political development, therefore, the pro-democracy camp should abandon its misguided ideas to propel constitutional reform back to the legal system.

The author is a professor at Shenzhen University and member of Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.