LETTERS
Conspiracy theory
Sir: Hong Kong will be grateful if Parlia- ment approves the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Bill. But it will take more than 250,000 passports to save Hong Kong from the ruin that anyone who lives there can see coming.
Parliament must now honestly deter- mine the causes of the failure of the Government's policy on the future of Hong Kong and address them. If this is not done the Bill now before Parliament may well turn out to be just the first of the damage control measures that the Government will be forced to bring to Parliament in the run-up to 1997 and beyond.
The causes are not difficult to ascertain. They are to be found in Volume 2 of the 1989 Report of the Foreign Affairs Com- mittee on Hong Kong. What is most difficult is to get MPs to acknowledge the causes and accept a measure of culpability for what has gone wrong.
The Foreign Affairs Committee has done ill service to the concept of minister- ial accountability and to the inquisitorial credibility of the select committee system by lending undue weight to the former Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe's contention that the collapse of public confidence in the future of Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty is due to the tragic events in Tienanmen Square last June. The evidence taken by the Commit- tee does not bear out that opinion.
The submissions of the Hong Kong Bar Association and no less than 11 profession- al bodies as well as the British Chamber of Commerce and other reputable organisa- tions support the view of most political observers in Hong Kong. This is that Hong Kong's massive loss of confidence began in early 1986 when it was widely perceived that British officials had secretly capitu- lated to Chinese demands that constitu- tional reforms towards a more representa- tive form of government should be curbed.
This change of policy aborted the pre- conditions under which Parliament had consented to the Government's proposal to surrender Hong Kong and its people to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. However, for four years this deal was concealed from Parliament by the Foreign Secretary and from the people of Hong Kong by the Hong Kong government.
It would be difficult to find a more blatant case of official conspiracy to sub- vert the intentions of Parliament and de- liberately to mislead the public. The seriousness of the consequences must sure- ly argue a case for a full public inquiry to determine accountability including that of the Peking government which has clearly acted contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the Sino-British Joint Declara- tion. In the meantime, to ensure that officials and ministers are held more directly accountable to Parliament, perhaps the time has come to appoint a standing committee of Parliament to monitor the Joint Declaration to ensure that what is done honours British promises made to the Hong Kong people in 1983: that no agree- ment would be made with China that did not accord with their wishes.
John Walden
Arts Mansion A4 7/Fl 31 Conduit Road, Hong Kong
Mr Walden was formerly Director of Home Affairs in the Hong Kong government.
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