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Hong Kong pro-democracy front demand schedule for universal suffrage+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)HONG KONG, Jan. 23_(Kyodo) _ Thirty-five pro-democracy activists led by former Chief Secretary Anson Chan and Catholic Bishop Joseph Zen urged Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang on Monday to set a timetable for universal suffrage. In a full-page advertisement carried by both Chinese and English newspapers in Hong Kong, they urged Tsang to show "courageous leadership" in setting a timetable for universal suffrage. "(Hong Kong's) future depends on a clear path to democratic development," the advertisement said. The 35 people who signed the advertisement also included Baptist Church leader Chu Yiu-ming, Szeto Wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, 25 Hong Kong legislators, and Allen Lee, a member of Chinese parliament and a former Hong Kong lawmaker. "I signed because I support urging the chief executive to propose to (China's) central government a universal suffrage timetable, which is an appropriate demand," Lee told Kyodo News. "The government has forgotten that 70 percent of the public wants democracy," he said. In 2004, Beijing ruled out universal suffrage in elections the chief executive in 2007 and legislators in 2008 in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Hong Kong's Basic Law stipulates that universal suffrage is the ultimate goal but without stating when Hong Kong people can vote for their leader. The government has said there is a lack of consensus among the Hong Kong people on the need to set a timetable and a detailed plan for universal suffrage. A political reform proposal put forward to the Legislative Council by the government last month was vetoed by pro-democracy legislators, who said it lacked a timetable. The proposal would have doubled the 800-strong election committee, which will elect the next leader, to 1,600 members. It would also have increased the number of legislators from 60 to 70, widening public participation, the government claimed. Tsang said after the proposal was defeated that his newly-assembled advisory group will study the issue of setting a timetable for universal suffrage and inform the public of his decision early next year, when the next chief executive will be elected. |