Summary of my remarks on the government’s motion on the Amendment to the Method for the Formation of the Legislative Council at the 21 December 2005 LegCo meeting

• As stipulated in Article 68 of the Basic Law, the method for forming the Legislative Council shall be specified in the light of the actual situation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. The ultimate aim is the election of all the members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage
• In the meantime, the Functional Constituencies (F.C.) provide an important political platform for professionals who lack both manpower and resources to compete with candidates with political party background in direct elections
• Representatives of F.C. have been a stabilising force in LegCo. Besides providing their expert advice on related subjects, they tend to offer balanced views on a wide range of issues based on their professional opinions and experience rather than politically inclined considerations
• The restrictive number of the F.C. voters has always been the main point of contention. To address the issue, I am of the opinion that electorate base of the F.C.s should be broadened to enhance their representativeness
• I suggest to include Graduate Members and Associate Members of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) in the Engineering F.C. electorate. My proposal was approved with a majority by the Council of HKIE. I wrote to the government to take up the matter.
• Immediately after the release of the 5th Report of the Constitutional Development Task Force, I e-mailed engineers a questionnaire. Only 60 replies were received. But the majority of the replies support the government’s proposals on the method of the formation of Legislative Council in 2008.
• Following views were also received during my consultation with engineers:
  • Not all 5 additional F.C. seats created in 2008 should be given to District Council F.C. Instead, some seats should go to new F.C.s such as higher education sector or Chinese medicine practitioners
  • Government’s proposal provides no specification in the electoral method for seats to be returned to District Council F.C. as this may affect the outcome of the election results
  • The government failed to indicate the exact number of appointed District Council members to be eliminated in 2011 in the adjustments to its political reform proposal
• I sent out another questionnaire immediately on the same day after the release of the government’s adjustments to its political reform proposal on 19 December 2005. The response I received was 620 (63.4%) FOR whiles 360 (36.6%) AGAINST
• The reply results indicate clearly that the majority of my constituents support the government’s political reform proposal and I voted likewise.