<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110980340145868740,00.html>
The Wall Street Journal March 3, 2005 COMMENTARY The Fall Guy By MARTIN LEE March 3, 2005 Reports that Hong Kong's unpopular Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa will be forced to resign soon will make some people in Hong Kong happy. But if they think a little deeper, they will understand how dangerous this development really is, and that the only way forward is to change the system. The Chinese leaders' reaction to the huge antigovernment demonstration on July 1, 2003 was not to acknowledge that they had picked the wrong man as chief executive, and that therefore they were going to do the right thing and leave it to the Hong Kong people to choose their next leader. The correct path for China, however, is to improve the system, not just change the man. I have disagreed with Mr. Tung's policies on many occasions, but in recent years the Democratic Party has actually been pro-Tung. This is not because we are saying he is good, and thus should be kept. The reason why we have been supporting Mr. Tung is because we didn't want the consequences of the precedent that has now been established by his removal. Mr. Tung received two terms, the first one announced to the world symbolically when then Chinese leader Jiang Zemin sought him out in a crowd to shake his hand in Beijing in early 1996, and the second thanks to the open endorsement of Mr. Jiang and other Chinese leaders in 2002. He should not have been given a second term, but he was. But this does not mean that he should now be removed. In recent years, there have been repeated complaints to Beijing about Mr. Tung's poor performance by many people in Hong Kong -- including prominent businesspeople -- because they were not given sufficient favors. This sets the precedent that when influential Hong Kong people don't like the chief executive, they can go to Beijing and tell them they want him removed, and Beijing will go along. Even if Beijing never told Mr. Tung in so many words, "Please step down, and use ill health as the reason," the writing was on the wall that China's leaders wanted his resignation. A recent dressing down that Mr. Tung received from Chinese President Hu Jintao in Macau was humiliating, and the whole world, including the people of Hong Kong, heard every word of it. Clearly, Beijing didn't want him to continue. The message Beijing seems to be sending to the people of Hong Kong is that they have been suffering because of Mr. Tung, so now that he is going to be replaced, everything will be all right. Beijing can moreover use this opportunity to make a show of listening to the people of Hong Kong -- that it understands their concerns and acts accordingly. It is so convenient for Beijing's leaders to make Mr. Tung the fall guy, put all the blame on him, and wash their hands clean. And some Hong Kong people might even believe that now that Mr. Tung is gone, their troubles are over. But these events are going to have very real consequences. Beijing has reportedly named Chief Secretary Donald Tsang as Mr. Tung's successor. After having seen what happened to Mr. Tung when Beijing didn't like him, Mr. Tsang is going to make sure that the same fate doesn't befall him, and so will do everything that Beijing wants him to do. In other words, he will be even more obedient than Mr. Tung. The departing chief executive may have been a marionette whose strings were pulled by Beijing. But now with the appointment of Mr. Tsang, Beijing has instead a glove puppet it can control directly with its bare hand. Beijing should have learned from past mistakes that people here don't trust the appointment system, because the appointor can be wrong, and in this case was proved to be wrong twice. Where is the guarantee that the new leaders in Beijing will do a better job in choosing Mr. Tung's successor than their own predecessor did with him? Beijing must therefore realize that the path they have chosen for Hong Kong has not worked, and we should not continue on it. The only viable alternative is for them to learn to trust the people of Hong Kong, and let us decide for ourselves. Let us have democratic elections. I realize that prospects of that are dim. The fact that Beijing has ruled out democratic elections for 2007-08 shows that it has not learned the evil of the appointment system. But under Hong Kong's Basic Law, Mr. Tung's successor will take over for six months only, and must hold an election in September at the latest. It's all up to Beijing: It could let Mr. Tsang take over for six months, and during that time introduce democracy. Of course it's possible -- If Beijing wanted to give Hong Kong democracy, who would oppose it? Beijing's leaders could tell Mr. Tsang; "You take over for now, but in September you hold elections, and they must be democratic elections: one person one vote." They could change the electoral laws so that in September elections Mr. Tsang can run, but so can anyone else, and the Hong Kong people decide. That should be the only way. The problem is that Beijing still doesn't trust the Hong Kong people, which is why Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong is really the man running Hong Kong. But if you try to have "One country two systems" without Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong, and without a high degree of autonomy, the whole thing collapses. Right now one country two systems means that the big system in the mainland is run by Chinese leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, while Mr. Zeng controls the small part of China that is Hong Kong. The way forward is not for Beijing to control Hong Kong even tighter than before. The way forward is for Beijing to learn to trust the Hong Kong people. Without trust, "one country two systems" cannot possibly work. Mr. Lee is the founding chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party. -- ----------------- R. A. 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