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The Research Team on the Study of Referendums, initiated by four voluntary academics, Robert Chung, Kenneth Chan, Kin-man Chan and Wilson Wong, has finally completed its study on the referendums and their possible applications in Hong Kong. The report entitled "Referendums Around the World and Lessons for Hong Kong" has recently been released, and is now available for public downloading from the HKU POP Site (http://hkupop.hku.hk).

The Team concluded that referendum is not only feasible in Hong Kong, but it is also a preferred mechanism. Referendum can fill the gap of the city's current political system and be conducive to the development of democracy. Although the government is reluctant to initiate legally binding referendum because of political concerns, it is still worthwhile to encourage civil referendums in the society. However, referendum should not be treated as a panacea that can speedily resolve all conflicts and confrontations. When campaigning for referendum, a number of conditions have to be in place before it can be considered as both effective and convincing.

To discuss the practicability and suitability of using referendum in Hong Kong, one has to be rational and objective in the first place. The Research Team has dropped to use "plebiscite", a word that perceived to be politically skewed, in favour of the more neutral "referendum" in the entire report, so as to avoid instilling a preset notion in the general public on the issue.

By the same token, to equate the push for referendum with the fight for "Hong Kong independence" is not only superficial and erroneous, this reckless assumption also turns a blind eye on the reality. The right to initiate referendum is not only reserved for sovereign states or central governments. For example, many local governments in America, on both state and municipal level, use referendums to decide on issues that within their own jurisdiction. As such, it is groundless to dismiss the feasibility of holding referendums in Hong Kong just because it is not a sovereign country. At least we should be able to exercise discretion on using referendum on self-governed affairs that within the Basic Law framework.

One particular point the Team would like to emphasis in this report is that referendum is a very flexible system, and it is shapeable and adaptive in nature. Therefore, many worries on referendum can be put at ease simply by fine-tuning the design of the system. For example, people may question whether referendum will be exploited to challenge the central government if it is being introduced in Hong Kong. By confining the applicability of referendum and limiting its use on issues of non-sovereign public policies and people's livelihood, such doubt will no doubt be dissipated.

Moreover, the fear of excessive use of referendums by the majority as a coercive tool for tyrannical rule could well be overcome through system design. For example, we can restrict the use of referendum on human rights' or ethnic minority rights' issues. We can also require an absolute majority, or even more votes, in the passage of motions raised in referendums.

Conceptually and theoretically, Hong Kong is ready for referendums. This is confirmed by the detailed analyses and benchmarking studies on foreign experiences by the Research Team. Furthermore, Hong Kong is experienced in holding large-scale elections that involve the participation of all citizens; the voting rate in the Legislative Council (LegCo) election can even match those in many mature democracies, e.g. congressional and presidential elections in USA. As such, the Team cannot see any insurmountable difficulties of carrying out referendums in Hong Kong, judging from the maturity of voters and the election hardware/software in place.

As a whole, the Research Team concluded that referendum is able to bring along beneficial and positive impacts in Hong Kong, especially on channelling public opinions, enlarging the room for public participation and raising the level of government governance. Hong Kong today remains undemocratic that the government fails to listen to public opinion, and the general public have been limited to say on many government policies. Hence, referendums can fill the gap and citizens can decide on public affairs through popular vote.

In Hong Kong, public opinion survey cannot possibly substitute referendum. Many scientific public opinion surveys are sample surveys, aiming to construe a general picture through interviewing a few. This kind of survey cannot be absolutely accurate as there must be statistical deviations. The more important point is that, as all citizens are entitled to the right to participate, referendum enhances the sense of involvement and belonging unparalleled by any public opinion.

Referendum may hint a way out for Hong Kong's democracy development. Waves of governance crisis after the handover were mainly triggered by short of recognition in the formation method of the government. For example, the election for the Chief Executive is commonly regarded as a "small circle" election, which controlled by a few business elites. As the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) has ruled out the possibility of general elections in 2007 and 2008, holding referendums on important decisions can in a way to improve policy making and increase the government's legitimacy.

At the same time, we shall not be too worried that the direct democracy represented by referendum will encroach the representative democracy of the LegCo and replace its legislative function one day. Take Switzerland as an example, from 1991 to 2002, the number of referendums held in the country accounted for 25% of the world total. Regardless of the percentage, the actual number was just 135, implying that majority of the Swiss laws were passed by the legislature. As illustrated, referendum and representative politic are complementary, instead of contradictory.

A final point to note in this report is that the realisation of referendum in Hong Kong may take two forms, i.e. government-initiated or citizens-initiated. Government-initiated referendums can either be legally binding or consultative in nature. Even if the government turn down any form of official referendum on whatever grounds, including for pure political reasons, citizens-initiated referendum, albeit non-legally binding, can still be conducive to expanding horizon for public participation. In view of the lack of government support and constrained resources, civil groups can consider to have trial runs in smaller constituencies, like District Councils.

A major attempt of this research report is to draw a "checklist" for groups that are interested to push ahead civil referendums, providing references on how should an effective and qualified referendum be. For a referendum to be effective and qualified, one of the most important prerequisites is the presence of a professional monitoring body to ensure the creditability of the voting process. Nevertheless, as the Team focused on the mechanism of referendum in this research, no consensus on the suitability of using referendums to settle Hong Kong's current major issues has been reached. Last but not least, the Team would like to point out that the discussion on referendum should not be limited to voting only. What referendum represents is indeed a form of deliberative democracy. How to ensure the general public to have a thorough and objective understanding on the topics concerned prior to voting? And how to construct rational dialogues between various parties? The essence of deliberative democracy often lies in the answers to these questions.