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Note: This article represents the view of the authors and not their respective universities.

Whether Hong Kong can conduct a referendum on the arrangement of the political reform in 2007/08 has already been an issue which attracts the attention of community groups, political parties, the Legislative Council, the HKSAR Government as well as the Central People's Government. In our view, no matter a positive, negative or wait-and-see approach is taken in this issue, the definitions, theories, practices, international experiences and the impact on Hong Kong brought up from the controversial topic of referendum deserves high research value. In view of this, in a meeting chaired by Legislative Councilor Emily Lau which discussed the feasibility of introducing referendums, we announced that we would organize a research team formed by voluntary academics. The Team would study referendums in compliance with the following objectives: to conduct independent research, operate with high transparency and facilitate civic education. The Team is temporarily named as "The Research Team on the Study of Referendums". Up till this moment, members of the Team include Wong Wai-ho from the Government and Public Administration Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chan Kin-man from the Sociology Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and both of us. We hope an academic exchange can be achieved among different disciplines in the society and a platform, which allows open discussions on the principles and arrangements of referendums, can be built.

The Research Objectives and Composition

The objectives of the Research Team are (1) to study and document the development and operation of referendums around the world, and (2) to study the feasibility of introducing referendums of different formats and levels to Hong Kong. Here, "different formats" include official legally-binding and consultative referendums which are more frequently discussed, and also civil referendums which are proposed by democrats recently. As for the feasibility of 'different levels', it means the feasibility of introducing referendums at district or territory-wide levels.

The Team will integrate international and historical perspectives with the experiences learned from citizens' participation in the course of Hong Kong's political reforms. The Research Team operates independently, and all team members serve entirely in their personal capacity. They do not represent any organization, including the universities they are working in. More importantly, the Team will adopt an open and tolerant attitude in considering all opinions and analyses thoroughly and make sure our study is conducted objectively and scientifically.

The Research Team hopes to complete the study by the end of this year, and then publishes the findings through various channels, so as to encourage an active and rational discussion in the society. The title of the report is temporarily set as "Referendums Around the World and Lessons for Hong Kong".

The work of the Team is mainly initiated voluntarily and carried out by academic fellows. In order to conduct the study efficiently, the participating academics can decide together to employ research assistants to collect and organize the information. The Team can also invite honorary advisers to give advice on the study's direction, progress and method, etc.

Main Theme of the Study

Our research study is based on people's participation, and tries to give a detailed, comprehensive and understandable analysis on referendums. Major topics include: (1) historical development of referendums all over the world;(2) different forms, categories, nomenclature of referendums as of today; (3) theoretical discussions of direct democracy and referendums; (4) practical considerations for the introduction of referendums to Hong Kong; and (5) suggestions for introducing formal and civil referendums to Hong Kong.

The debate on referendums indeed contains many misconceptions and misuses of languages and is highly politicized. Through this cooperation and research, we hope to achieve at least two self-determined goals, which are to initiate civic education and systemically organize related information. We also plan to list in our report a comprehensive bibliography of information and references, and construct an online resource centre for future education, studies and policy references on referendums.

We hope to emphasize that we will accept sponsorship in order to support the research assistants' work such as information collection, translation, proofreading and editing, etc. However, the operation of the Team and the research itself will not be affected by sponsors under any circumstances.

We initiate the study on referendums regardless of the opposition from the central and HKSAR governments. In addition, we do not think referendums have any association with "the independence of Hong Kong". We welcome all interested parties to participate in the discussion so as to give play to the values of this study. In fact, we will create an online opinion platform very soon and allow all parties to express their opinions. We hope that while citizens are considering different ways to take part in the process of political reforms in Hong Kong, they can at the same time have a thorough evaluation on their relationship with the HKSAR government, the legitimacy and credibility of political reforms.