March

一個 stright to the point 的 editorial，摘自2005年12月5日金融時報：

Politics on the streets

(Published on December 5 2005)

Once again, unelected leaders in Hong Kong and Beijing ......

... tens of thousands of people marched through the city yesterday to demand full democracy ...... Anson Chan, the popular former head of the civil service, joined the march, saying: "There are moments in one's life when you have to stand up and be counted".

... the demands of the protesters are far from revolutionary. Indeed, these demands are enshrined in the Basic Law, ...... it grants the territory "a high degree of autonomy" and declares the ultimate goal of the political system to be universal suffrage.

Mr Tsang and his supporters have made several grievous errors in their handling of the political agenda. First, they have given equal weight to the demands of Beijing and Hong Kong, which suggests they do not understand the meaning of "a high degree of autonomy". Second, they have arrogantly assumed to know what the people of Hong Kong want without consulting them in a fair and transparent manner.

Third, and most insulting of all, they have suggested that Hong Kong's people are not mature enough to engage in democratic politics. It is true that Hong Kongers have not had any practice, but that is hardly their own fault and it is absurd to insinuate that some of the best educated people in the world are less ready for democracy than Indonesians or South Africans.

Mr Tsang has tried to bully Hong Kong into accepting his limited reforms by arguing that rejection would mean no progress at all, but the argument is false. By doubling the number of those who will elect the chief executive in 2007 to 1,600 (out of 6.8m people) and by increasing the size of the legislature without changing the proportion of directly elected seats, Mr Tsang is simply delaying genuine reform. Hong Kong's people have made it clear they want at least a timetable for democracy. ......