1 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Liberal Studies Independent Enquiry Study Report Standard Covering Page (for written reports and short written texts of non-written reports starting from 2017) Enquiry Question: Should Functional Constituency elections in the Legislative Council be abolished? Year of Examination: Name of Student: Class/ Group: Class Number: Number of words in the report: 3162 Notes: 1. Written reports should not exceed 4500 words. The reading time for non-written reports should not exceed 20 minutes and the short written texts accompanying non-written reports should not exceed 1000 words. The word count for written reports and the short written texts does not include the covering page, the table of contents, titles, graphs, tables, captions and headings of photos, punctuation marks, footnotes, endnotes, references, bibliography and appendices. 2. Candidates are responsible for counting the number of words in their reports and the short written texts and indicating it accurately on this covering page. 3. If the Independent Enquiry Study Report of a student is selected for review by the School-Based Assessment System, the school should ensure that the student’s name, class/ group and class number have been deleted from the report before submitting it to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. Schools should also ensure that the identities of both the schools and students are not disclosed in the reports. For non-written reports, the identities of the students and schools, including the appearance of the students, should be deleted. Sample
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1
Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education
Liberal Studies
Independent Enquiry Study Report
Standard Covering Page (for written reports and short written texts of non-written reports starting
from 2017)
Enquiry Question: Should Functional Constituency elections in the Legislative Council be
abolished?
Year of Examination:
Name of Student:
Class/ Group:
Class Number:
Number of words in the report: 3162
Notes:
1. Written reports should not exceed 4500 words. The reading time for non-written reports should
not exceed 20 minutes and the short written texts accompanying non-written reports should not
exceed 1000 words. The word count for written reports and the short written texts does not
include the covering page, the table of contents, titles, graphs, tables, captions and headings of
photos, punctuation marks, footnotes, endnotes, references, bibliography and appendices.
2. Candidates are responsible for counting the number of words in their reports and the short
written texts and indicating it accurately on this covering page.
3. If the Independent Enquiry Study Report of a student is selected for review by the School-Based
Assessment System, the school should ensure that the student’s name, class/ group and class
number have been deleted from the report before submitting it to the Hong Kong Examinations
and Assessment Authority. Schools should also ensure that the identities of both the schools
and students are not disclosed in the reports. For non-written reports, the identities of the
students and schools, including the appearance of the students, should be deleted.
Sample
2
Table of Contents
A. Problem Definition P.3
B. Relevant Concepts and Knowledge/ Facts/ Data P.5
C. In-depth Explanation of the Issue P.9
D. Judgment and Justification P.13
References P.18
3
A. Problem Definition
The Functional Constituencies (FCs) have long been criticized without high representativeness
and violate the principle of democracy. Many people in the society ask for the abolition of it.
According to the recent political reform package, if the 2017 Chief Executive election in Hong
Kong conducted by universal suffrage, the Legislative Council elections in 2020 could also be
conducted by universal suffrage.1 It is arguable whether the FCs are incompatible or compatible
with universal suffrage. Therefore, whether to retain or abolish the Functional Constituency
elections in the Legislative Council is a controversial issue and there are divided views in the
community.
The FC first developed in the release of "Green Paper: A Pattern of District Administration in
Hong Kong" in July 1984.2 The introduction of FCs was part of an overall plan to develop
representative government in Hong Kong, and in Legislative Council (LegCo) particularly, during
the final years of British sovereignty.3 In the White Paper on the Further Development of
Representative Government in Hong Kong 19844, there are some objectives: first, the system of
representative government rooted in the community and be accountable to Hong Kong people;
second, to ensure broadly based selection method for the LegCo., third, to provide a foundation for
further development in composition and selection method in the LegCo.
It was a transitional arrangement before handover and acted as a buffer between direct and
indirect elections.5 Hong Kong society now is ready for a directly elected legislature as people are
more aware of their political rights and freedoms in recent years. The community as a whole is
better informed. Direct elections have been practiced for almost three decades and all the past
elections held were smooth and peaceful. The importance of FCs in Hong Kong has been greatly
declined and the demands for direct elections in the LegCo have been increasing among Hong Kong
people. Therefore, it is a debate on the abolition of the FC elections in the LegCo.
In 2012, the new arrangement in the Legislative Council election seems broaden the electoral
base of the Functional Constituencies election. However, the existing traditional Functional
Constituencies in the Legislation Council election are still undemocratic and hinder the democratic
development.
The aim of this report is to evaluate whether the FCs should be abolished in the Legislation
Council election by analyzing the relationship between the principles of universal suffrage and
1 Methods for selecting the Chief Executive in 2014 and for Forming the Legislative Council in 2016 Public consultation, http://www.2017.gov.hk/en/home/index.html 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_constituency_(Hong_Kong) 3 A Critical Introduction to Hong Kong's Functional Constituencies Functional Constituency Research Project 2004 http://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/118843 4 White Paper: The Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong, cited in A Critical Introduction to Hong Kong's Functional Constituencies Functional Constituency Research Project 2004 http://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/118843 5 A Critical Introduction to Hong Kong's Functional Constituencies Functional Constituency Research Project 2004 http://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/118843
Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different FCs, namely (a) for the 4 special FCs (marked with
* ), the preferential elimination system of voting; (b) for the District Council (second) functional constituency
(“DC (second) FC”), the list system of proportional representation; and (c) for the remaining 24 ordinary FCs,
the first-past-the-post voting system.
Number of electors
Geographical Constituencies: 3,466,201
Functional Constituencies: 240,735*
* Excluding 3,219,755 electors of the District Council (second) functional constituency
Election arrangement of LegCo in the Basic Law
Regarding the method for forming the Legislative Council, Article 68 of the Basic Law
stipulates that “... shall be specified in the light of the actual situation in the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. The
ultimate aim is the election of all the members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage.”
Therefore, implementing universal suffrage ultimately is a requirement under the Basic Law.
In additional, it is required that the constitutional development in HKSAR should adhere to the
following 4 main principles under the Basic Law7: first, meeting the interests of different sectors of
society; second, facilitating the development of the capitalist economy; third, gradual and orderly
progress and forth, appropriate to the actual situation in the HKSAR. It shows the arrangement of
7 Methods for selecting the Chief Executive in 2014 and for Forming the Legislative Council in 2016 Public consultation http://www.2017.gov.hk/en/home/index.html
7
the political arrangement in the LegCo need to follow the requirement in the Basic Law and it
shows the progress to democracy and universal suffrage ultimately.
The principle of balanced participation8
The principles of balanced participation ensure wide acceptance and support to the political
system, and hence maintain political stability as well as sustainable and orderly democratization.
Different countries have different perceptions of and planning for balanced participation and
according to their own conditions. While respecting the dignity and freedom of choice of
individuals, the design of the political structure and electoral systems of a place are determined by
other factors such as its own national conditions, history, tradition and culture, state of economy,
ethnic characteristics and established values. Therefore, it requires an open discussion to decide the
meaning of balanced participation in the LegCo with consensus in the society.
Universality and equality
According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 259, it
states,
Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions
mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:
(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen
representatives;
(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and
equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will
of the electors;
(c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.
In Hong Kong, according to the Basic Law 10
Article 39, the provisions of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, shall remain in
force and shall be implemented through the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
In other words, the political arrangement should in compliance with these international standards
and under its protection -the open, free and equal right to vote and to be voted/elected in the
genuine elections.
8 Adoption of the Principles of “Universal Suffrage” and “Balanced Participation”- Practices in Some Democratic Countries
From the tables, the electoral base of the traditional Functional Constituencies is much
narrower than the Geographical Constituencies. For example, the lawmakers are just elected by a
small group of the population (around 240,000 out of 7 million eligible voters). Some of the
Functional Constituencies only consists of several hundred registered voters which cannot really
represent the whole sector. The narrow electoral base in the election may cause unequal meaning of
representativeness.
2. Nomination requirement
The right to vote and being vote is not fair.14
They are two main types of voters in FCs;
cooperate vote and individuals vote. For cooperate vote, this means the voting power on the owner
of the business instead of the all participate in the field. In every Hong Kong workplace where one
finds employees (or the employer itself) eligible to vote in the FCs, there will inevitably be a
number of employees in the same workplace who are ineligible.15
In 2009, there were 12940
participates in the Insurance sectors, but only 141 registered cooperate votes whereas there were
118,337 participates in Financial Services but only 578 registered cooperate votes in this sector.16
It shows this arrangement strongly distorts the meaning of representation and lots of voices cannot
be effectively reflected. This type of unequal treatment perpetuates social values of elitism which
are contrary to the values of equality.
3. Lack of competition
Some constituencies where their candidates were elected unopposed. These candidates may be
the cooperate voters rather than individual one. They represent the interest of business group and
pro-government group. In the 2012 LegCo election, candidates were returned unopposed in 16 of
the 30 seats in the 28 functional constituencies. Moreover, in the agriculture and fisheries functional
constituency, only 123 voters turned out. Compare that with the 61,705 voters for the educational
constituency - a turnout 500 times higher.17
14 `Should Functional Constituency be abolished’ http://cdehk.com/%E7%AB%8B%E6%B3%95%E6%A9%9F%E9%97%9C/%E6%87%89%E5%90%A6%E5%BB%A2%E9%99%A4%E5%8A%9F%E8%83%BD%E7%B5%84%E5%88%A5/?lang=en 15 A Critical Introduction to Hong Kong’s Functional Constituencies 16 解構功能組別(一): 何來「均衡參與」?
http://www.procommons.org.hk/%E6%A2%81%E5%85%86%E6%98%8C%E3%80%81%E9%83%AD%E6%A6%AE%E9%8F%97-%E8%A7%A3%E6%A7%8B%E5%8A%9F%E8%83%BD%E7%B5%84%E5%88%A5%E4%B8%80-%E4%BD%95%E4%BE%86%E3%80%8C%E5%9D%87%E8%A1%A1%E5%8F%83%E8%88%87 17 'Scrap-or-keep' debate on functional constituencies leads us nowhere, SCMP, 21 October, 2013
I support to abolish the FCs or need to change the existing composition and arrangement. It is
based on the following aspects:
1. Convergence to the Basic Law
The Basic Law stated that the ultimate aim that all members would be elected by universal
suffrage in the LegCo.23
Moreover, Chinese official also claimed that if the 2017 Chief Executive
election in Hong Kong were to be conducted by universal suffrage, the Legislative Council
elections in 2020 could also be conducted by universal suffrage.24
It is proper and reasonable that
the FCs can be abolished as soon as possible and it is compatible with universal suffrage laid down
in the Basic Law.
2. Violate the principle of universal and equality
As mentioned above, the arrangement of FCs is controversial and the size of electorate and
electoral method in each FC seat may vary. Therefore, the representativeness is difficult among the
traditional constituencies as some adopt individual vote and some are cooperate vote. More badly, it
also has great different as compare with the GCs which represent about three million voters,
whereas the traditional GCs only represent nearly twenty three thousand voters. It is obviously
against the idea of “equal” suffrage. Therefore, the representative is different and easily controlled
by the cooperate voter who representing business interest rather than the general view.
The Hong Kong Bar Association has commented that functional constituencies must be
abolished in order for the Legislative Council to return by universal suffrage in compliance with
Article 25(b) of the ICCPR25
. The former Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr.
Stephen Lam also claimed that the existing electoral method for the FCs of the LegCo does not
comply with the principles of universality and equality. The existing electoral arrangements cannot
be maintained when universal suffrage for the LegCo is implemented.26
It means the government
also confess that the improper arrangement of the FCs which violate the idea of universal and
equality.
Some would say the existence of functional constituencies is to allow the voices of the
professional sectors to be reflected in the Legislative Council and to improve the quality of
23
The Basic Lawhttp://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/en/index/ 24
Methods for selecting the Chief Executive in 2014 and for Forming the Legislative Council in 2016 Public consultation http://www.2017.gov.hk/en/home/index.html
25
Hong Kong A step taken in development of political system http://www.hkba.org/whatsnew/misc/HKBA_Constitutional-related_articles_July_2010.pdf 26