Tung clashes with leading democrat on HK democracy
Tung clashes with leading democrat on HK democracy
HONG KONG (AP): Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa differed sharply with the territory's leading democrat yesterday over the pace of democracy, saying it was more important to improve living standards.
Martin Lee, chairman of the Democratic Party, accused Tung of doing China's bidding by curtailing Hong Kong's freedoms.
The conflict resurfaced a day after Tung delivered his first annual policy address to the legislature as Hong Kong's post- colonial leader.
That speech dealt only briefly with the future of democracy, and Tung followed up yesterday by urging radio listeners to stop dwelling on China's 1989 crackdown on protesters, and to be careful how they handle matters that are acutely sensitive to China.
Later, in a speech, he said he wanted to put aside questions of democratic development for a few years and focus on housing, education and welfare.
Lee, meanwhile, appeared before reporters to denounce Tung as an un-elected leader, "accountable to no one," who had rolled back voter rights without consulting the public.
"Perhaps he is only accountable to Beijing," Lee said.
Lee's Democrats, the most popular party in Hong Kong, are excluded from the legislature China set up to replace the elected one on July 1, when the British colony reverted to Chinese sovereignty.
But Tung, heading a semiautonomous Hong Kong government, is also proving popular, according to opinion polls.
He has had a largely trouble-free 100 days under Chinese sovereignty, and the signs are that Beijing is not trying to micromanage him.
In his speech to business leaders, Tung was asked when Hong Kong would have full democracy.
"I'd like to think about it a few years down the road," he said, adding that it was more urgent "to tackle all these issues of livelihood, education, ..."
Judging from the calls to Tung on a radio phone-in program, many people agree.
Almost all the questions were about housing, education, pollution and welfare.
But the potential difficulties he faces were evident in one question, from a woman asking whether China should admit it was wrong to crush the 1989 protest movement at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
"I think it's now time for Hong Kong to lose this burden," Tung said.
"We have a very important future ahead of us." People should instead take pride in China's economic achievements since 1989, he said.
"We cannot forget it," the woman replied. "The memory is still very fresh."
The attitude of many Hong Kong people to China is defined by the events of 1989, and tens of thousands rally every June 4 to remember the victims.
Any attempt to curb the commemoration would play into the hands of critics like Lee who claim Tung is Beijing's yes-man.
But he must also show Beijing that Hong Kong is not becoming a base for subverting China.
Tung insisted he was in favor of full democracy, and that China had already laid out a timetable for achieving it.
"Democracy is very important to Hong Kong," he said. "It's about people having a choice, about the government being held accountable to the people. ... We are all moving in that direction."
Lee accused Tung of "putting our fate in the hands of Chinese leaders".
Hong Kong needs a leader to "defend our system and not to try to assimilate our system with the mainland system," he said.
"Does he realize that Hong Kong people are here because of freedom? Does he realize so many of our friends and relatives have left Hong Kong in the last decade because of the loss of freedom?"