Opposition scorns Donald Tsang's appeal

Opposition lawmakers poured scorn yesterday on a plea by Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) to galvanize the city behind unpopular electoral reform plans that threaten to tip over into a constitutional crisis.

Tsang's televised appeal on Wednesday was counterproductive, they said, and instead steeled opponents as they prepared to protest against the proposals in a mass rally scheduled for Sunday.

The chief executive's reform plan, first rolled out in October, seeks to move the southern Chinese territory away from a system in which political leaders are selected by a committee of mostly Beijing-backed elites.

However, democrats agitating for universal suffrage say the measures don't move the former British colony close enough to full democracy and have vowed to vote the bill down in the legislature.

In his speech, Tsang said his proposals were the best chance democrats had of realizing their dream of full democracy.

"I really cannot see any other option that can better suit Hong Kong's current circumstances," he said in the emotionally charged five-minute broadcast. "We are now facing a real danger of our democratic development coming to a halt."

Democrats were unmoved, saying they believed the address was counterproductive to his position.

"We have to thank Donald because from what I have heard, people are not happy at being told what to do by him. He has instead brought more attention to us," said veteran pro-democracy Lawmaker Emily Lau (劉慧卿).

"He didn't look good and it did him no good at all. He may even have encouraged more people to join our march," Lau added.

Bobo Yip (葉寶琳) of march organizers Civil Human Rights Front agreed: "The free advertisement was wonderful," she told the South China Morning Post.

Tsang is obliged by the Basic Law, the post-colonial constitution, to introduce an electoral system based on universal suffrage.

At the moment, only half the 60-seat legislature is directly elected.

The law, however, gives no target date, and legislators and Chinese and Hong Kong officials have fought a bitter feud over the timing ever since the city reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

Tsang proposed only modest interim reform proposals after Beijing last year ruled out a swift transition to full democracy.

Beijing opposes any sudden change, fearing it may spark democratic sentiment on the mainland or instability in Hong Kong, China's richest city and the conduit for much of the investment that fuels the mainland's economic growth.

Democrats have said they may consider passing the proposals if Tsang gave them a clear timetable for the implementation of steps leading to full democracy, something he has so far rejected.

Sunday's march will gather support for that call, organizers hope.

The democratic movement's figurehead Martin Lee (李柱銘), in Washington to promote his cause overseas, said Hong Kongers had little alternative but to protest.

"The people of Hong Kong have no other option but to show solidarity by joining together, by taking part in peaceful assembly to voice our aspirations, to let the Beijing leaders know we really want and deserve democracy," Lee told a public forum in Washington.

If estimates of rally turnouts of 100,000 to 200,000 people should prove true, they would seriously embarrass the government and could wound Tsang politically.

The former civil servant, a once loyal servant of the British colonial government, was not China's ideal choice to lead the territory.