Officials, lawmakers and judges would be required to take classes on the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, under a motion to be tabled at China's annual legislative session, reports said yesterday.
The proposal was put forward by Hong Kong delegate Lee Cho-jat and 50 of the territory's 122 delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) had signed it, according to local media.
But it would not include the previously-mooted suggestion for a code of conduct to monitor legislators' patriotic attitudes and breaches of oaths of allegiance to Beijing and the Basic Law.
Hong Kong's democratic development is enshrined in the Basic Law, which came into force at the handover of sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997.
The motion comes amid intensifying debate on the introduction of full democracy by 2007 and over Hong Kong politicians' and officials' patriotism.
Lee acknowledged that his original idea was a response to Democratic legislator Martin Lee's (李柱銘) controversial recent trip to the US to promote democracy in the territory.
He had now dropped the code of conduct plan because the Basic Law already provided for such a monitoring mechanism, he said, but added that legislators should not be left "unchecked," he added.
Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam (
Democratic legislator Fred Li Wah-ming slammed the idea, calling it a "joke."
"It's like asking us to go back to school," Li said. "It's meaningless. The argument is not whether we understand the Basic Law, it's a political argument -- whether we want the universal suffrage."
However, legislator Eric Li, also a Hong Kong CPPCC delegate, welcomed the idea, saying the 121-page Basic Law was an important instrument that was worth studying.
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