作者：萧平
XIAO PING
资深时事评论员
Has HK's democratic development
slowed down since reunification?
回归后香港居民享有的政治参与权是港英时代无法比拟的，各项选举的民主成分不断扩大是不争的事实。有人指责中央拖慢了香港民主发展，这明显对中央不公，既缺乏历史的比较，也缺乏对基本法相关原则的认知。
The average Hong Kong resident's right to participate in political affairs has increased far more than it has had at any point under British rule. It is an undeniable fact that the democratic components in various elections have grown in the past 23 years as well. Those who accuse the central government authorities of dragging their feet over Hong Kong's democratic development are clearly unfair, as they offer nothing to compare historically and obviously do not understand the relevant principles enshrined in the Basic Law.
港英的制度被称作“早期帝国政治的活化石”。从英国占领香港一直到上世纪60年代前，政治权力始终掌握在港督及英籍官员手中，占香港人口98%的华人几乎无法参政。直到麦理浩时代才开始吸纳一些华人代表人士进入行政、立法两局。港英政府一位英籍高官在退休后的演讲中说：“我任职官员30年，从1951年到1981年，其间‘民主’一直是肮脏的字眼。港英官员们坚信，为香港引入民主政治将是摧毁本土经济、制造社会和政治不稳的最快、最可靠的办法。”1982年香港首次选举部分区议会议员，这时中英关于香港问题的谈判已经开始。1991年立法局部分议员由分区直选产生，这时基本法已经颁布了。
Britain maintained colonial rule over Hong Kong, which has been described as a "living fossil of early imperial politics". From the time of British occupation till the 1960s, political powers were tightly held in the hands of the governors and British nationals in public offices, while ethnic Chinese residents who accounted for 98 percent of the population had almost no right to participate in political affairs. It was during Murray MacLehose's governorship (Nov 19, 1971, to May 8, 1982) the first few people of Chinese descent were inducted into the Executive Council and legislature. A former British principal official in Hong Kong who retired in the 1980s once said in a public speech that throughout his 30-year tenure, from 1951 through 1981, “democracy” was always a dirty word. This is because the British Hong Kong government firmly believed that, once introduced into the city, democracy would destroy the local economy and cause sociopolitical instability surely in no time. When democracy was experimented with for the very first time in the District Council elections of 1982, bilateral talks between the United Kingdom and China over the question of Hong Kong were already underway. When some people won the Legislative Council election in 1991 by direct vote in geographical constituencies for the first time in history, the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has already been promulgated by the National People's Congress.
回归后的香港，特区政府和立法会均由本地人组成，行政长官选举委员会人数和立法会直选议席逐届增加，朝着基本法设计的最终达至普选的目标迈进。回归后香港政制发展进程从未停止过，而且不断加快。
The HKSAR government and LegCo have been composed of local permanent residents since reunification. The members of the Chief Executive Election Committee have increased gradually, as have been the LegCo seats open for direct election. All these steps have been taken in a gradual and orderly manner toward universal suffrage as stipulated in the Basic Law. The fact is the progress of democratic development has never stopped but instead quickened since China resumed the exercise of sovereign rule over Hong Kong nearly 23 years ago.
有人留恋彭定康的激进政改，殊不知那是别有用心。戴卓尔夫人在她的回忆录中披露了一个公开的秘密：早在中英谈判之时，铁娘子发现继续管治香港已不可能，于是决定“一定要发展香港的民主架构，以期在短期内完成独立或自治的目标，如像我们曾在新加坡所做的那样”。在香港扩大民主选举问题上，英国人是算计过的，如果他们继续管治香港，激进政改根本就不会发生。
Some people have been obsessed with the radical political reforms launched by Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, without knowing he had ulterior motives for doing this. The late prime minister Margaret Thatcher wrote in her memoir that she knew while Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong were still going on that it would be impossible for the UK to continue governing the city and decided back then to develop a democratic framework to facilitate a speedy process for Hong Kong to gain independence or complete autonomy, just as what Britain did in Singapore. Apparently, the UK government introduced radical political reform in Hong Kong only because it knew its colonial rule in Hong Kong would not last for long.
不能抛开社会其他方面的情况孤立地处理政制发展问题。基本法第45条和第68条都明确界定，行政长官和立法会的产生办法要“根据香港特别行政区的实际情况和循序渐进的原则而规定”。罗尔斯的《正义论》说，理想中的正义并不等于现实中的正义。在没有共识的情况下急于实行普选，只会带来社会的分化和动荡，过犹不及，最终可能付出拖垮经济和法治的沉重代价。
It is never a good idea to pursue political reform in total disregard of other aspects of a society. The Basic Law stipulates in Articles 45 and 68 that the methods for the selection of the chief executive and legislators "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". John Rawls argues in A Theory of Justice that ideal justice does not equal justice in reality. Introducing universal suffrage in a hurry and without consensus would lead to social division and unrest. That would defeat the purpose of democracy at the expense of the local economy and rule of law.
顺带说一句，“循序渐进”最早是港督卫奕信提出的，得到邓小平的赞同，写进了基本法。
By the way, "progress in an orderly fashion" was first raised by David Wilson, who was governor of Hong Kong from April 9, 1987, through July 3, 1992. That idea won the support of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and was eventually written into the Basic Law of the HKSAR.
在推进政制发展的目标上，各方没有分歧，分歧在于是急进还是渐进，是从抽象的概念出发还是根据香港的实际情况来安排。从有直选到实现普选，法国用了140年，美国用了170年，英国用了560年。香港不用这么久，毕竟双普选已经提上日程，现在需要的是共识。还要多说一句，政制发展是为了带来好的管治，并非“一人一票”那么简单。西方政制陷入“否决政治”的怪圈，正在变得失效，很值得港人深思。
There is no disagreement among all parties concerned on the goal of electoral reform in Hong Kong. Differences have always been in how soon the goal is to be achieved — in a rush or an orderly fashion. In other words, the difference is between promoting democracy based on an abstract term or in accordance with Hong Kong's real conditions. From direct election to universal suffrage, it took France 140 years, the United States 170 years and the UK 560 years. Obviously, it will not take Hong Kong very long to achieve universal suffrage, since the central government has already set a schedule for the process. All the city needs now is consensus. One more thing: Electoral reform is more than “one person, one vote”. For starters, it is meant to improve governance. Western democracy has found itself stuck in a vicious cycle of “vetocracy”, which Hong Kong must avoid at all cost.
原文刊登于4月21日《中国日报香港版》