SCMP: Hong Kong has a national security law, universal suffrage should be next
Originally published on SCMP on 10th August 2020
Some say Hong Kong is the “new Berlin”, without specifying whether it’s the eastern or the western half; some say we resemble Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese war, fought over by superpowers eyeing its rich resources. Whichever allusion is used to interpret the current situation, one must not forget these wars came to an end. Order was ultimately restored.
The China-US hostility will end one day and order in this city will also be restored. But one would be a fool to expect things to “go back to normal”, like they were in the past 23 years. The old arrangements drafted 30 years ago are deemed unfit for this unprecedented international situation, so what officials call a “new constitutional order”, is set to correct it. The city has had a taste of what this new order is like after the enactment of the national security law.
But, however different the new from the old, the Basic Law still serves as the framework. Apart from outlining the powers of the authorities, it also ratifies Beijing’s promise of “universal suffrage” for the selection of chief executive.
I surely am not alone in continuing to believe in this solemn promise. In an article for Ming Pao, Terrence Lin and Liang Junjie advocated for the long-delayed political reform. They argued that, after the enactment of national security law, the “one country” principle is stronger than ever, so the central government has no excuse to delay or avoid its promise of universal suffrage.
Their argument is further supported by the arrests of pro-independence student leaders and the disqualification of anti-establishment Legislative Council candidates, even the moderate ones. Now it seems Hong Kong is no longer “a bridgehead to subvert and infiltrate the mainland”, as alleged by a Beijing official.
In this case, it is unclear what remaining concerns loom over universal suffrage from Beijing’s point of view. Rather, to many in Hong Kong, the conditions for launching political reform, as set out by Beijing, have ripened.
It may be absurd to even imagine any meaningful discussion on this topic at this heated moment but, with the aforementioned mechanisms in place, the possibility of relaunching political reform should, logically, be larger.
If the central government extend their goodwill on this issue, the people of Hong Kong and the wider international community will take it as a positive sign that Beijing is determined to advance the city’s democratic process, as promised over the years. It would be wise for the central government to consider universal suffrage as part of this new order.
Gordon Choi, Wong Tai Sin
