【Legal Affairs】完善選舉制度 代表多元聲音 馬恩國：確保最有能力候選人贏得選舉

9月19日，香港進行了選舉委員會的選舉，有西方政客聲稱，選委會選舉只是「小圈子內的活動，結果早已內定」，而事實真是如此嗎？本期《以法論政》節目由香港高等法院律師葉欣穎主持，聽聽香港大律師、香港法學交流基金會主席馬恩國如何回應這問題。

主持︰Welcome to the first edition of Legal Affairs, I'm Stephen Yap. Our program will discuss from a legal perspective current affairs issues relating to HK. Today, we have in the studio Lawrence Ma, Barrister and Chairman of HK Legal Exchange Foundation. Lawrence, recently on 19 September, HK held the Election Committee (EC) election and candidates were elected to fill the 1,500 seats of the EC.

歡迎來到第一期《以法論政》，我是葉欣穎。我們的節目將從法律角度探討與香港有關的時事熱話。今天，我們請到了香港大律師、香港法學交流基金會主席馬恩國先生。馬律師，在9月19日，香港舉行了選舉委員會的選舉，選出了選委會的近1,500名成員。

The Election Committee comprises of 5 sectors, industrial, commercial and financial sectors is the first sector. The professionals is the second sector. Grassroots, labor, religious organization the third sector. LegCo Members and district organizations representatives being the fourth sector. Finally, the deputies of the National People's Congress, HK members of the National Committee of the CPPCC, and HK members of five national organizations

選委會成員來自五個界別，工商、金融界是第一界別，專業界是第二界別，基層、勞工和宗教等屬於第三界別，立法會議員、地區組織代表等為第四界別，最後是港區全國人大代表、港區全國政協委員以及有關全國性團體香港成員的代表屬於第五界別。

Lawrence, Western critics says that our EC election was not an election at all. It was just an event for a small bunch of people in HK to cast a ballot to reach a result, that has already been decided by Beijing. Now what is your take on that?

馬律師，西方有人稱，我們的選委會選舉「根本算不上選舉，只是小圈子內的活動。他們投出選票來選出一個早由中央決定了的結果」。你怎樣看待這種說法？

嘉賓︰Well, Western elections focus on the process. They don't really care if they voted for someone who is a real fanatic and didn't do much good for the country. They always think that, "well, if I elected a crook, I can vote down the crook in the next election." That's what Western democracy always believes in.

西方的選舉更注重過程，他們並不關心自己是否把票投給了某個極端狂熱，卻沒有為國家（及地區）做過什麼事的人。他們總是認為︰「如果我把票投給了一個騙子，那我下一次再把這個騙子投下去就行了。」這就是西方的所謂「民主」。

But to us, election is not a process, it's a result. Our election is how to make sure the best and most capable candidate who has a good track record of management to win the election. Election is only a process, as I said. And prosperity, stability, security is the result that we aim for. We will not sacrifice the result for the sake of compliance with a process, so that explains how election is different in our part of the world, and the Western part of the world in relation to the election.

不過對我們來說，我們更注重選舉的結果。我們關心的是如何確保最有能力以及有良好過往記錄的候選人能贏得選舉。正如我所說，選舉只是一個過程，而繁榮、穩定與安全是我們所追求的結果。我們不會為了遵守過程而犧牲這個結果，這就是我們在選舉方面有所不同的地方。

主持︰So Lawrence, Western critics also says that because only a few can cast a vote, candidates elected like yourself may not be representative enough. Now what's your take on that?

馬律師，西方評論者還稱，由於只有少數人可以投票，像你這樣當選的候選人可能沒有足夠的代表性，對此你怎麼看？

嘉賓︰Well, because I'm representing the legal sector, let's talk about the legal sector, all right? The legal sector, in the old days, before this reform, only practicing barristers and practicing solicitors can vote. That means how many people? We have about what 9,000 practicing solicitors, and about 1,500 practice barristers. That would be just a little bit over 10,000 people. Now, what about those who are in the quasi-legal profession? For example, legal executives. In your firm, you have a lot of people who are so experienced. They're not qualified solicitors, but they are so experienced. They are legal executives. They've done the training program. They work in a law firm for over 10, 15 years. They get in business, deal with clients. Those people are not represented.

因為我是代表法律界的代表，那我們就談談法律界。就法律界而言，在這次改革之前，只有執業大律師和執業事務律師可以投票。那即是多少人呢？我們有大約9,000名執業事務律師和大約1,500名執業大律師，加起來就是1萬多一點。那麼，那些從事準法律職業的人呢？例如法律行政人員。在一些公司裏，有很多人非常有經驗，他們沒有獲得執照，但他們非常有經驗。他們是法律行政人員，完成了相應培訓，也在律師事務所工作了10年或15年以上。他們從事業務工作，與客戶打交道，但這些人沒有得到代表。

What about trademark attorneys? What trademark agents, patent attorneys? They are not represented. What about trainees solicitors? What about pupil barristers? What about legal graduates from universities? They were all unrepresented in the legal sector. So in this election reform, taking into, for example, the HK Legal Exchange Foundation like us. We have a lot of members who are in those categories which I just mentioned. Those people can now have their voice in the CE and the LegCo members election process, because they can, through the votes exercised by our Legal Exchange Foundation, pick the best candidate that represents them. So actually, the basis of representation is enlarged rather than smaller.

商標律師、商標代理、專利律師，他們沒有被代表。還有見習事務律師、見習大律師，以及大學的法律畢業生，他們之前在法律界是無法得到代表的，但在選舉制度完善後，比如說像我們香港法學交流基金會。我們有很多的會員都屬於我剛才提到的那些人，現在這些人可以在行政長官和立法會議員的選舉中發出自己的聲音，因為他們可以通過我們的法學交流基金會所行使的投票權，挑選出代表他們的最佳候選人。所以實際上，代表的基礎被擴大了而不是縮小了。

主持︰Thank you, Lawrence. That was very enlightening.

謝謝你，馬律師，你的看法都很有啟發性。

●點新聞英文節目《Legal Affairs 以法論政》