Hong Kong caretaker leader Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) yesterday defended the government's move to seek Beijing's intervention to settle an ongoing dispute over the tenure of the next chief executive.
"I admitted that there is no other way to resolve the problems locally. The matter is not for my own making. I am not trying to make an excuse for it ... there is no way out," Tsang told foreign media at a briefing.
"It's not a failure of policies, not a failure of arrangement ... the question is whether we've done it properly, I think I have. Whether [it's] absolutely necessary, I think I've proven that is the case," he said.
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong government requested that China's State Council step in after activists threatened to derail the selection process for a new leader, sparked by the mid-term resignation of former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) last month.
The controversy was triggered by the government's decision that the next leader -- to be elected on July 10 by an 800-member committee of Beijing loyalists -- should serve only the two years remaining of Tung's term.
Opponents said the ruling was in breach of the city's Basic Law mini-constitution that came into force when the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Tsang admitted Hong Kong was still new to constitutional law but denied there was any conspiracy behind the decision.
"We have little experience in the territory in dealing with the constitutional law ... We have to develop our own legal system now. I don't believe there is any ulterior motives behind the decision," he said.
But the government's decision was unlikely to calm criticism from the opposition.
Pro-democracy group Civil Human Rights Front, which organized two huge protests that ultimately helped bring about Tung's early resignation, said it was planning another rally to coincide with the election of the next chief executive.
The group hopes to bring thousands of people onto the streets on July 1, the anniversary of anti-government marches in 2003 and last year and the date of the return to Chinese rule. Half a million people took to the streets in 2003 in protest against the unpopular security bill. Last year, another half million marched in protest at China's decision to rule out direct elections for chief executive by 2007.
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