The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I=m Jim Lehrer. On the PHIL PONCE: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, a big vote for peace in Northern Ireland and for democracy in Hong Kong; we'll have analysis of both elections; a report from California on the referendum battle over bilingual education; an Anne Taylor Fleming essay about teaching young people to appreciate life; and some Memorial Day poetry from Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. It all follows our summary of the news this holiday.% ? NEWS SUMMARY

PHIL PONCE: Indonesian President B.J. Habibie today promised to hold new elections within one year. He did so at the first full cabinet meeting since his appointment. The announcement means Habibie will not attempt to serve out the five-year term former President Suharto handed over last week when he resigned. The government also released two high-profile political prisoners and issued a report on the deaths earlier this month of six student protesters at the hands of the military. Habibie has pledged continued political reform. Defense Secretary Cohen warned Iraq today not to start trouble again in the Persian Gulf. He made that comment after the aircraft carrier Independence left the region. The U.S.S. Dennis now is the only American carrier still there. Cohen said the number of American warships and bombers in the Gulf was being reduced partly to ease the pressure on U.S. forces there. They've been on high alert for many months. The Secretary said enough firepower remains to back U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq, and a rapid deployment bomber force could be in place within 48 hours. About 20,000 U.S. troops are still in the Gulf. President Clinton led Memorial Day ceremonies in Washington today. He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. Earlier this month the remains of a Vietnam veteran were removed from the tomb for possible identification. Veterans and visitors from across the country attended today's ceremony to pay tribute to fallen servicemen and women. Afterward, the president addressed the crowd.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: We can make the 21st century a century of peace. We can write a new chapter of unprecedented possibility and prosperity in our nation's history. In so doing we can extend the glory of the patriots who lie here, missing from our lives, but eternally present in our memories. My fellow Americans, on this Memorial Day let us commit ourselves to a future worthy of their sacrifice.

PHIL PONCE: Federal investigators confirmed today a bomb caused the explosion at a Danville, Illinois, church yesterday. Six of the thirty-three people injured remain hospitalized. The bomb tore a 10-foot hole in the wall of a church where 300 people were gathered for a mid-morning service. The FBI has joined the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms in the investigation. They're treating it as an isolated incident. No one has claimed responsibility. Pro-democracy parties in Hong Kong won 60 percent of the direct votes cast in yesterday's legislative elections, the first since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule last year. A record voter turnout returned many well-known advocates of democracy to the seats they lost in July. That's when the Chinese installed a hand-picked provisional legislature. The pro-democracy parties will now hold 19 seats in the 60-seat legislative council. It's time for Northern Ireland's paramilitary groups to lay down their weapons. That was the word today from the general in charge of disarming the province. He said he wants the groups to destroy their stockpiles now that the peace accord passed overwhelmingly in referenda in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the weekend. We'll have more on the Irish elections, as well as those in Hong Kong, after the News Summary. Also coming up, bilingual education, an Anne Taylor Fleming essay, and some Memorial Day poetry.% ? FOCUS - IT'S YES!

PHIL PONCE: Our election return package begins with the results in Ireland. Margaret Warner has the story.

MARGARET WARNER: There was jubilation at the King's Hall in Belfast last Saturday, as the results of Friday's referenda were announced. The official tallies showed two resounding endorsements for the Northern Ireland peace accord-71 percent in Northern Ireland, and 94 percent in the Republic of Ireland. Both sections of the island--the six counties that are part of Britain in the North, known as Ulster, and the independent Irish republic in the South-- saw record turnouts in separate votes on whether to approve the accord. The so-called Good Friday agreement was reached on April 10, after negotiations among all the parties under the leadership of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

GEORGE MITCHELL: God bless all the people of Northern Ireland.

MARGARET WARNER: The agreement aims to put an end to 30 years of violence between Protestant Unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of Britain, and Catholic Nationalists and Republicans, who want to become one nation with the Republic of Ireland. The bitter fighting left more than 3,000 people dead. On the issue of Northern Ireland's political status, the agreement does the following: maintains Northern Ireland as part of Britain--unless a majority of residents in the North votes to join the Irish Republic; amends the Irish republic's constitution to surrender its territorial claim to "the entire island of Ireland." The "yes" vote also: creates an elected Northern Ireland assembly, giving the 1.6 million residents there the power to govern themselves on economic and other domestic issues; creates a new north-south ministerial council to encourage cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic on common issues like agriculture and tourism. Bertie Ahern, Prime Minister of the Irish republic, welcomed the results.

BERTIE AHERN: The decision of the people of Ireland, Nationalists and Unionists, to endorse the Good Friday agreement represents a historic watershed between the past, driven by political division, and a new future based on mutual respect, concord and agreement.

MARGARET WARNER: Equally enthusiastic was British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had mounted a vigorous campaign supporting the agreement in Ulster.

TONY BLAIR: The people have spoken with a resounding voice. In the Republic of Ireland, in Northern Ireland, in the whole of the island of Ireland--everybody has now said you can make your argument by words, by debate, by argument, by persuasion, but there is no place for the gun or the bomb and violence in the politics of Northern Ireland or the politics of any of the island of Ireland. All that is over and gone.

MARGARET WARNER: Exit polls showed that more than 95% of Catholic voters approved the accord. Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the militant Irish Republican Army, said it was time for Catholics and Protestants to begin putting the agreement to work. But those same Exit polls showed Northern Ireland's Protestants had divided, 55 percent in favor, 45 percent against. Militant Protestant Unionist Leader Ian Paisley struck a defiant tone after the vote.

IAN PAISLEY: We were right. Yes, we were right.

MARGARET WARNER: Among voters, themselves, there seemed strong sentiment for the politicians to get to work, making the peace accord a reality.

VOTER: We just hope there's peace, that's all we want, nothing else, only peace.

VOTER: They've asked us to trust them, we've trusted them, its up to them now, they'd better deliver on it because we want peace.

MARGARET WARNER: The next step is another election in the North--scheduled for June 25th--to elect representatives to the new 108-seat Belfast assembly.

MARGARET WARNER: To help us understand the election and what it will mean we turn to Joe Carroll, Washington Bureau Chief of the Dublin-based Irish Times, Ireland's second largest daily newspaper. He covered Northern Ireland from 1968 to 1973. And Hugo Gurdon, Washington Bureau Chief of Britain's major conservative newspaper "The Daily Telegraph." Welcome, gentlemen. Is 71 percent enough of a vote to give this agreement the political momentum it needs?

JOE CARROLL, The Irish Times: I think so, yes. I mean, there's going to be the election on June 25th. But the Unionists who support the agreement; if they get that kind of support in these elections, I think they'll have enough to make the agreement work.

MARGARET WARNER: Do you agree, enough to make it work?

HUGO GURDO, The Daily Telegraph: Yes. Although the fact that so many Unionists voted against the agreement is going to be-is potentially a severe problem, because it means that not many people in the Unionists' portion of society have to change their view to have a substantial proportion, possibly even a majority eventually of Unionists feeling that they made a mistake. It really-

MARGARET WARNER: You mean because only 55 percent of the Protestants or Unionists voted for this?

HUGO GURDO: That's right. It doesn't take that much of a swing to unsettle things for the Unionists.

MARGARET WARNER: Why do you think-I know you both looked at some Exit Polls-why did so many-why was there such a difference between the two communities, the Catholic and the Protestant?

HUGO GURDO: Well, the Catholics and the Nationalists had everything to gain from this. And the Unionists, it seems to me, gave up a great deal. The current position of the province of Ulster is a Unionist position. And cross border bodies and joint decision-making with Dublin cooperation, with Dublin cedes a degree of official authority and sovereignty in Northern Ireland. So it's the Unionists who gave up most.

MARGARET WARNER: Why do you think there's such a difference?

JOE CARROLL: I must say I don't agree that the English gave up most. I mean, the Sinn Fein position, which was always, you know, Ireland must be united, they gave up that claim, saying that it will only be actually when the Unionists in Northern Ireland want to come into a united Ireland that they can go. That was a huge concession on their part and actually on the part of the people in Southern Ireland, who had a constitutional claim. But, I mean, I take Hugo's point. It shows that the Unionists didn't really agree that all this was being given up. But I think objectively you have to look at it that way, because their position is protected constitutionally. These cross-border bodies, we have to see how they're going to work. I mean, I think you mentioned agriculture, fisheries, and tourism. Well, I mean, is that so dangerous for Northern Ireland if they're going to talk about tourism?

MARGARET WARNER: What is this split in the Protestant community going to mean now? Let's turn to the elections coming up June 25th. I noticed that some of the more militant Protestant leaders are saying we're going to try to get elected to this assembly so we can essentially stalemate it. To what end? Why is this assembly so important?

HUGO GURDO: Well, it's an assembly which distinguishes Ulster from the rest of Britain in having its own assembly. It suggests a degree of autonomy and makes it very-constitutionally obviously very different from the rest of Britain. And the Unionists' position, the hard-line Unionist position-and as represented by Ian Paisley-is that there should be no surrender of sovereignty in that way. So he opposed this election. He opposes the results of this election, the constitutional changes of this election and the legislative consequences.

JOE CARROLL: Well, Northern Ireland actually had its only assembly until 1972, when it was abolished because of the violence, so they had their own domestic parliament in a way that Scotland and Wales are finally going to get. So for years that's the way they governed, but, I mean, because the Unionists were in the majority, the Catholics felt frozen out, and they didn't cooperate. But this assembly, the whole thing is very complex internally. If the assembly doesn't work, the whole agreement falls through. And this is why this election is so important. This whole agreement could yet fall through, because if the anti-agreement Unionists won't work it and they're in a position to block it, it then can't move on and appoint the cross-border body. If that doesn't happen-and I think it's written in-inside a year, theoretically the whole thing will collapse and all bets are off, and all these constitution changes don't take place.

MARGARET WARNER: David Trimble, the pro-agreement Unionist leader I read was quoted as saying even some of the Protestants who voted yes might, nonetheless, vote to put in hard-liners, thinking, well, they'll keep an eye on Gerry Adams and so on. I mean, is that possible, that you could see the Protestant vote shift in the June election?

HUGO GURDO: I've certainly heard that, yes, in making contact with Northern Ireland-people in Northern Ireland and also back in London. Their assessment is that what people have done here in the last-in the vote, in the referendum-is to vote their hope that there will be peace. But once an assembly is going to be voted for, they will be voting for much more specific, much more definable things, and they will want a firm representation, perhaps hard-line representation. Now, whether that happens or not, I don't know, but that certainly is what people are talking about, though.

MARGARET WARNER: The two prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, played a huge role in bringing this yes vote about. Can they play a similar role in the June 25th election, or are they out of the picture now? Is this something that the Northern Irish people have to do?

JOE CARROLL: Well, I think Bertie Ahern will stay out of the picture-be resented, I think if the southern prime minister tried to interfere in an election in Northern Ireland. But I don't think Tony Blair will stay out of the picture. I think he's already planning a new trip to Belfast. And I think it'll be important. He, more or less, saved the referendum. It was going down the tubes as far as David Trimble was concerned, because of the prisoners and all that stuff, and now I think-

MARGARET WARNER: This is the release of prisoners.

JOE CARROLL: Release, temporary release of prisoners to appear at these conventions where they were shown, you know, being-you know, and made heroes. So I think Blair will have to keep up this pressure, because Trimble still needs an awful lot of help.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, a controversy-or a new controversy broke out today, as we reported in the News Summary, over the de-commissioning of weapons issue. Explain, Hugo, what the agreement provides for in that regard, in terms of both sides-or either side turning in their weapons.

HUGO GURDO: Well, it is currently hoped that there is going to be de-commissioning. The-as the story that you just ran suggested, people are saying it is now time to turn in the weapons. But I don't think that total de-commissioning is even a possibility. I don't think that anyone there really expects any of the militant groups, particularly the IRA, to hand over their weapons. The thing is that de-commissioning has been talked about and insisted upon but not done at all sorts of stages in this agreement. The British government originally said that there could be no talks without de-commissioning. And then there was this thought that there might be de-commissioning parallel to the talks. But it hasn't happened, and I can well see that starting to be thought of as flexible and at least from Sinn Fein. I think that there may well be very firm resistance to that.

MARGARET WARNER: How do you see the de-commissioning issue playing out in the next few months and affecting the elections, if at all?

JOE CARROLL: Well, the IRA made a very firm statement that they wouldn't hand over any of their guns. And one of their supporters even said not even the rust-but at the same time, people who have studied these statements felt that a little door was being left over in the IRA statement where they said, you know, we are not going to be asked to surrender these guns, but they said, if we do things, we do it voluntarily, and some people are thinking that, I mean, they have to give Adams a help on this. I mean, if Adams wants to get into the new government in Northern Ireland and, you know, it's made clear by the IRA that they will never de-commission, I mean, the thing will fail as well.

MARGARET WARNER: And explain that. That's because some of the Protestant leaders essentially told voters we won't let any Irish leader in the government unless what? Explain.

JOE CARROLL: Yes. Well, David Trimble, more or less, said that, but, I mean, he has gone further than the agreement. The agreement says they want to solve this de-commission thing over two years, whereas, Trimble seemed to be saying, I can't have Gerry Adams sitting beside me in a government if the Sinn Fein and IRA don't start handing over the weapons before he sits at the table. He went too far, because the agreement doesn't quite say that. So he's got to get off that hook. And he may look for Adams to let him off the hook by Adams saying something-you know-more conciliatory.

MARGARET WARNER: But you're saying you think this issue will be finessed yet again?

HUGO GURDO: Well, that's my fear. It's difficult to see how it can constantly be finessed, but the British government, as I say, two and three years ago, two years ago, was saying there must be de-commissioning before talks. And that didn't happen. And then after George Mitchell joined the process, it was-there was talk of parallel de-commissioning, and that didn't happen. So I just foresee resilience and recalcitrance by the IRA and by some loyalist groups as well.

MARGARET WARNER: Stepping back again and looking at this result, what do you think it says about-if anything-about how Ireland's changed, both North and South? I mean, could we have had this kind of a result 10 years ago?

JOE CARROLL: No. I mean, it's-even up to a month ago, there were people who said you will never get an agreement with the Unionists and Sinn Fein signing up for the same agreement. People were absolutely convinced that that could not happen. People like John Hume, leader of the Nationalist Party, felt it could happen, and he worked for years to do it. So, I mean, it is a kind of an unimaginable agreement that people from those opposite ends of the spectrum who kind of hate each otherin many ways are suddenly prepared now to sit down at the same table.

MARGARET WARNER: Why do you think it is?

JOE CARROLL: Well, I think, you know, the pressures came on. I mean, Tony Blair worked very hard. The President Clinton pressures, I think, were important, because they were certainly important in an international context, to say, oh, look, it's not just this little bit of patch up in Ireland. You know, this has world reverberations, you know. And, you know-and this is the time; you won't get another chance; seize this opportunity. And I think all that kind of worked. Plus, we heard those ladies on the tape. They want peace. They really want it. They're fed up with the politicians, and I think the politicians began to get the message.

HUGO GURDO: Well, all of that is true, but there are some additional things. And one is that Sinn Fein hasn't really signed up to this as the settlement. It regards it as the-a stage towards its ultimate goal, which hasn't changed, which is a united Ireland. And although they have in participating in the-or in signing up to this agreement-indicate that they are willing to go along with the majority view in the country, my fear is that they're not people used to democracy, and that after a year or two or a few years, they will have pocketed the advances they've made in the switch of sovereignty and will start making trouble again.

MARGARET WARNER: But in the meantime the South voted 94 percent we'll give up our territorial claim to the North. I mean, what message does that send about how people in the South Irish republic feel and care about the North?

HUGO GURDO: Well, I think for many, many years-

MARGARET WARNER: In part.

HUGO GURDO: --people doubted that the people of the South were nearly as concerned about the sovereignty in the North as most people in the North were concerned about it. What sovereign Ireland-what the republic of Ireland has done is to give up claims. What Sinn Fein has done is to give up claims. What the Unionists have done and what Britain has done is to give up sovereignty. There is-one side is relinquishing something which is a fact, and the other is relinquishing something which is a claim. And that's why I say that the Unionists have actually given up more.

MARGARET WARNER: Briefly, do you think the vote in the South makes the prospects of a united Ireland dimmer?

JOE CARROLL: I don't actually, you know, because I think Hugo is right. Really, these famous articles in the Irish constitution, most people kind of-half the young people wouldn't have known what the articles were, actually. It was an older generation who hung onto them. So I think really that that's-I don't think it has made it any dimmer. I think we're in for a new dynamic.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, thank you both very much.

PHIL PONCE: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, another election story, bilingual education, essayist Anne Taylor Fleming, and U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.% ? FOCUS - VOTE FOR DEMOCRACY

PHIL PONCE: The elections in Hong Kong this weekend also produced some dramatic results. It was Hong Kong's first election since China regained control of the former British colony last July, and it produced a record turnout of more than 50 percent of the territory's eligible voters. The high turnout--by Hong Kong's standards-was a surprise to political analysts because of torrential rains and because many observers had predicted widespread voter apathy. And when the ballots were counted, pro-democracy supporters were jubilant. Pro-democracy candidates won most of the 20 directly-elected seats in the 60-member legislative council known locally as LEG-CO. Martin Lee, Hong Kong's most prominent pro-democracy politician, was quick to call both the turnout and the results a victory.

MARTIN LEE, Chairman, Hong Kong Democratic Party: I already said democracy, because that is what we promised the Hong Kong people, and that was something we put at the forefront of our campaign platform.

PHIL PONCE: But even though pro-democracy candidates won most of the popular vote, they will still be in the minority. That's because 40 of the 60 total members are chosen indirectly and tend to favor Chinese and business interests. The outgoing council was created by China last year, immediately after the hand-over, to replace a democratically elected version, which had been in operation the previous two years. The new legislative council takes over in July.

PHIL PONCE: We get two perspectives now on the elections. Kenneth Pang is the commissioner of Hong Kong's Economic & Trade Office in Washington. As such, he's the Hong Kong government's top representative to the United States. Dick Thornburgh was attorney general from 1988 to 1991 under Presidents Reagan and Bush. He's now in private practice and is the chairman of the U.S. Committee for Hong Kong, which monitors political developments in Hong Kong. Gentlemen, welcome both.Mr. Pang, first of all, your reaction to the election.

KENNETH PANG, Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office: Well, I was very delighted. Yesterday's election was Hong Kong's historic day, a record turnout of voters at the polling stations 53 percent, the highest in Hong Kong's history, representing just under 1.5 million people casting their vote. This is a very important step towards the further democratic development in Hong Kong.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Thornburgh, your reaction to the turnout.

DICK THORNBURGH, U.S. Committee for Hong Kong: I think it augers very well for the causes of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Hong Kong. I think it surprised a lot of people. There was a good deal of skepticism about whether the people of Hong Kong were interested in voting, whether their interests transcended making money in that go-go economy, and particularly with the torrential downpours that took place on election day, the 53 percent turnout is a record, is truly extraordinary. I think it's also significant that the pro-democracy forces did so well. Martin Lee's group and his allies getting somewhere around 60 percent of the vote of the electorate, even though that will have a lesser impact in the legislative council, sends a very positive signal, I think, for the interest of the people in Hong Kong in seeing democracy grow in that area.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Pang, were you surprised by how well the pro-democracy candidates did?

KENNETH PANG: Well, I'm not surprised at all, because the government welcomes the return, a successful return of all the legislators representing the interests of Hong Kong people. So it's the people's choice. I'm not surprised at the return of any legislator with any particular affiliation, because Hong Kong is a free and political society.

PHIL PONCE: You talk about it being the people's choice, and yet, of the 60 seats in the council only 20 are directly voted for by the people. How democratic of a system is it, would you say?

KENNETH PANG: Well, the basic law, the constitutional document of Hong Kong, laid down a very clear roadmap for the future democratic development of Hong Kong. And the composition of the legislature at the moment is no different from that in 1995. That is 20 directly elected seats, plus 40 indirectly elected seats. This 40 indirectly elected seats are an interim state to the ultimate objective of universal suffrage. Now, in the basic law of the constitution it-it lays down that the number of directly elected seats will be gradually increased. In the year 2000, it will be increased from 20 to 24. In the year 2004, it will increase to-from 24 to 30. That is half of the number in the legislature. And by the year 2007 it is up to the people of Hong Kong to decide the future mode of election for the legislature after the term 2008.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Thornburgh, do you think that the results of the election this weekend will put extra pressure on the powers that be to speed up the-speed up that transition process that Mr. Pang was describing?

DICK THORNBURGH: I think that's highly likely. I was in touch with Martin Lee's office today, and their sense is that given the high degree of interest and the high level of support for democratic candidates expressed in this election, that they're going to put on the agenda for the legislative council when it meets, an acceleration of that pace, and perhaps through as early a year as 2000. As Mr. Pang points out, the basic law extends that a little further into the next century, but there's a lot of enthusiasm generated out of this year's election results, so it might be possible to accelerate that and also provide for at an early date a democratically- executive elected chief.

PHIL PONCE: How about that, do you agree with that, that it could potentially speed things up?

KENNETH PANG: Well, it is the people's wishes. The government will obviously take into consideration all the views from different parties as to their wishes. It's very clear in the basic law as to the power of reaching that ultimate goal of universal suffrage. And I'm sure the high turnout rate on this occasion indicate people's enthusiastic participation and determination to make Hong Kong-governing Hong Kong people-governing Hong Kong works-and with a high degree of autonomy under this principle of one country, two systems. So I'm sure we are moving in the right direction.

PHIL PONCE: It's called a legislative council. How much power does it really have?

KENNETH PANG: Well, the legislative council is responsible for monitoring the work of the government, and also for examining enacting legislative and also examining and scrutinizing government's public expenditure, so it is a very important body. It works together very closely with the administration and the administration is obviously looking forward to building a close and good relationship with the new legislature, which it has elected.

PHIL PONCE: Is it the legislative council that calls the shots, Mr. Thornburgh?

DICK THORNBURGH: Oh, I think by our standards the legislative council is a weak organ of government. It can't-a member can't introduce a bill of any substance without the permission of the executive branch. But make no mistake about it. This new legislative council is going to be a vast improvement over the rubber stamp appointed council that has held office since the turnover. And I think it's going to provide some healthy scrutiny of the activities of the government and there will be a lot of free and open discussion about what Hong Kong's future is going to be. And that can't help but advance the cause of democracy.

PHIL PONCE: And Mr. Thornburgh, what kind of an impact do you think this election might have throughout China?

DICK THORNBURGH: Well, it's very interesting. You've seen this week the fallof a semi-dictatorial government in Indonesia and the rejuvenation of democracy in Hong Kong. That's got to send a message throughout Asia. As you know, in China, they're beginning experimentation with democratic elections at the local level, and the changes that are going to take place there in the next century I think are going to be monumental if they're watching the enthusiasm that's developed in Hong Kong for democratic government, it's got to send a signal to the leaders in Beijing as well.

PHIL PONCE: Do you think it's sending a signal? It's been said, for example, that Hong Kong might have more of an impact on China than China might have on Hong Kong. Is this a potential example of that?

DICK THORNBURGH: Well, I think Hong Kong represents a free, open, and prolific society. And obviously the world would like to see every nation in the world moving in that direction.

PHIL PONCE: And so do you think that this will, what, be a role model or a possible model for China throughout its territory?

KENNETH PANG: I definitely think this has a very positive impact.

PHIL PONCE: Do you see it that way too?

DICK THORNBURGH: Well, I think it can be, and I hope that the United States gives a strong and vigorous support to these democratic elements, which have had such an impact in Hong Kong, and the president's going to be in Hong Kong, and it presents a remarkable opportunity for him to be a strong advocate of democracy and the rule of law in that area.

PHIL PONCE: This is the first time China allowed multi-party elections under its territory. A pretty big step for China?

DICK THORNBURGH: It is a big step, although interestingly, as Mr. Pang knows, the model for the one-country/two systems was originally devised with respect to Taiwan. And that remains, of course, a bone of contention across the straits, and I think this will have some impact on relationships between the PRC and Taiwan as well. There will be a renewed interest all across this area in the kinds of democratic elections that took place there.

PHIL PONCE: Do you have any information on what kind of an impact, what the official reaction is in Beijing to the election results?

KENNETH PANG: Well, I cannot speak on behalf of China. But on behalf of the Hong Kong government I think the Hong Kong government is extremely encouraged by the huge turnout rate yesterday at the election poll. It is Hong Kong's historic day. Indeed, the mere fact that there's such a high turnout rate we got signifies Hong Kong's ability and capability of organizing free, open, and honest election with the strong support and participation of the Hong Kong people moving towards the ultimate goal of having universal suffrage.

PHIL PONCE: And some political analysts are saying that giving the Hong Kong government its due, the Hong Kong government, itself, pushed very hard for a large turnout. Why?

KENNETH PANG: Well, the Hong Kong government, itself, obviously has done a lot of work, spent a lot of resources on it, but it is ultimately the people's choice, the people's wishes to return a legislature who can represent their interest. I think this has totally been demonstrated by yesterday's high turnout. I think this is a very good example of the people working together with the Hong Kong government, the Hong Kong government are totally committed to making Hong Kong-governing Hong Kong people, governing Hong Kong work, and so are supported by the Hong Kong people.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Pang, Mr. Thornburgh, thank you both for being here.

KENNETH PANG: Thank you very much, indeed.% ? FOCUS - BILINGUAL EDUCATION

PHIL PONCE: Now, a look at the bilingual education debate in California, where it's an issue in next week's statewide election. Spencer Michels reports.

SPENCER MICHELS: If Proposition 227 on California's June 2nd ballot passes, instruction in two languages, like this, probably will end. The proposition seeks to severely curtail bilingual education in public schools. About a third of all non-English speaking children-just under 1/2 million-are enrolled in bilingual classes of one sort or another. The proposition--put on the ballot by initiative-is the brainchild of Ron Unz, successful Silicon Valley software entrepreneur and one-time Republican candidate for governor-now a crusader to end bilingual education. He says his goal is simple:

RON UNZ: Teaching English to children as soon as possible once they entered school. It's taking young children who don't know the language, putting them in a classroom with the other children who are learning the language, and having them intensively talk English for a period of a new months, up to a year, until they've learned enough English to be mainstreamed.

SPENCER MICHELS: What Unz wants to eliminate is the use of Spanish or other foreign languages in non-language classes like math or science. Bilingual schools use that technique to try to keep students from falling behind in academic subjects. Those students are eased into speaking English in other classes, with more and more English as they get older.

RON UNZ: The current system of bilingual education in California is an utter unmitigated disaster. Right now, after 30 years of trying to make this system work, a quarter of all the children in California public schools don't know English, and of the ones who don't know English, each year in California only about 5 or 6 percent learn English.

SPENCER MICHELS: Opponents of 277 say those statistics are faulty and that there is no evidence children in bilingual education learn English less well or less quickly than those in English-only classes. Unz's initiative would allow parents to sue teachers and administrators if their children aren't taught entirely in English. The measure also calls for one year of intensive English classes in most cases for non-English speakers. It allows school board to continue bilingual ed, but only if enough parents request a waiver. Prop 277 comes at a time when California's population is becoming more Hispanic, more Asian, and less white. Currently 29 percent of Californians are Hispanic, and 11 percent Asian. In two years whites will be a minority. Fears about excessive immigration led to the passage of Proposition 187 in 1996-that cut back on services for immigrants. The courts held it unconstitutional. Those same fears have bolstered support for 277, according to Rosita Apodaca, in charge of San Francisco's bilingual program.

ROSITA APODACA: Certainly when demographics in a state are changing as dramatically as they are, we know that that instills an awful lot of fear and angst in people, and certainly they react in a very dramatic fashion.

SPENCER MICHELS: In California public schools, 1.4 million students-or a quarter of the total-have limited English proficiency-a nearly 300 percent increase since 1980. Nearly 80 percent speak Spanish-one of 82 languages spoken. Bilingual services-like those offered at San Jose's River Glen School-use 1.2 percent of California's entire K-12 education budget. Opponents of Prop 227 point to River Glen-an elementary school-as an example of bilingual education that works. Its 470 students-70 percent of them Hispanic-are expected to be completely bilingual by graduation. The principal--Cecilia Barrie-is a native of Cuba.

CECILIA BARRIE: Basically ,bilingual education means that you instruct in the primary language until the child learns enough English to continue instruction in English. If you have quality instruction and quality English as a second language program, it will work.

SPENCER MICHELS: What has been the result?

CECILIA BARRIE: The results are that our graduates, when they leave our school in sixth and seventh grades, they speak two languages, they read and write two languages, they continue doing well academically in English only.

SPENCER MICHELS: Mary Dorrego, who teaches sixth grade and is also a parent, thinks something is lost when kids are forced into English-only classes.

MARRY DORREGO: What happens is they lose their own culture; they lose their own identity; and the kids, young children, are going to learn English. My own son's first language is Spanish, and you look around here, everything is English. His baseball teams are English. His Power Rangers are English, his friends on the block are English speakers. And the struggle is not learning the English; the struggle is maintaining the Spanish, because the children grow up in English all around them, and they're going to get English.

RON UNZ: The parents themselves of these children want their children to be taught English as quickly as possible. I mean, most parents feel that the culture of the family background is more the responsibility of the family, and that the school's responsibility is teaching children--giving children the educational tools they need to succeed in our society.

FERNANDO VEGA: All these people here-that's my son-he's bilingual. That's Lloyd; he's bilingual. That's Fernandez; he's bilingual. That's David; he's bilingual.

SPENCER MICHELS: Fernando Vega-a 75-year-old grandfather, a retired aircraft mechanic, and former school board member-is one of the initiative's sponsors. He thinks bilingual education is completely wrong.

FERNANDO VEGA: We have the highest dropout rate of any ethnic group. Our kids are not learning. So it has been a failure.

SPENCER MICHELS: Vega says Hispanics are skeptical of bilingual ed. As a community leader, he says Hispanic neighbors come to him complaining about the program.

FERNANDO VEGA: I say what's your problem? "I have two children. I clean houses for a living, but I want my children to learn English, and I'll tell you whatever it takes." I said, "Senora, how about these schools?" "No, Senor, the school don't teach them English--only Spanish. I can do that at home and do a better job."

SPENCER MICHELS: All sides acknowledge problems with bilingual education: the programs are vastly uneven from school to school; it takes many kids too long to learn English; there's a shortage of trained teachers and textbooks; and there is no accountability , no requirement to be sure the programs work. Those shortcomings hit home with many Hispanic voters, who-polls show-are evenly split on the proposition. Unz and his side are using Hispanic voices to attract more support, much to the chagrin of bilingual advocates. Pro 227 commercials are in Spanish and English.

COMMERCIAL SPOKESMAN: Unless schools teach children to read and write English, they may be trapped in the same hard life.

SPENCER MICHELS: Opponents of the proposition include school boards and teachers organizations. Their commercials argue that the alternative to bilingual will cost more than the current classes.

COMMERCIAL SPOKESMAN: Proposition 227 appropriates $50 million a year for a new spending program.

PERSON ON COMMERCIAL: And it won't go to our schools.

COMMERCIAL SPOKESMAN: The PTA says no on 227.

SPENCER MICHELS: Principal Cecilia Barrie says while there may be problems with bilingual at some schools, Prop 227 is not the answer.

CECILIA BARRIE: If we need to fix bilingual education, let's fix it, but let's not eliminate it.

SPENCER MICHELS: The California legislature recently passed a measure to reform bilingual education, after years of argument. The governor vetoed it; and then endorsed Prop 227. Detractors say legislative reforms are too little, too late. At Lincoln High School in San Francisco, where 22 percent of the 2400 students are enrolled in bilingual classes, bilingual coordinator Fan Fang says Prop 227 is far too extreme. He says it will be a disaster for non-English speaking kids, especially for older children who have come to America not speaking English.

FAN FANG: They will be placed into a so-called English language classroom, and regardless of their age, based on their proficiency, and then after a year they have to go to regular classrooms. That creates a big problem to the regular teachers.

SPENCER MICHELS: How do you know?

FAN FANG: Because it's impossible for anybody to learn a language for one year and then master all the academics.

SPENCER MICHELS: Fang's Cantonese literature class is all in Chinese, so these freshmen can feel confident while they learn. But in other classes these same students-especially English grammar and literature-English is used. In this bilingual science class half the students speak Chinese as their first language. The instruction is in Chinese but the worksheets are in English. The English speakers in the class are learning Chinese. In other words, both groups of students are becoming proficient in two languages while learning science.

SPOKESPERSON: We think that by changing the language that will be the silver bullet for the kids.

SPENCER MICHELS: At Stanford's School of Education , academics say the Proposition 227 debate focuses on learning English, when the real problem is low overall achievement that ties into poverty. Professor Kengi Hakuta teaches future bilingual teachers.

KENJI HAKUTA: In California 80 percent of the kids who are limited English proficient are Spanish speakers. They come from families where the parents may have less of a history of formal education, high rates of poverty, schools that are poorly equipped, inadequately trained teachers, those kinds of conditions, and that sort of is true, regardless of whether you're in a bilingual or an English-only program.

SPENCER MICHELS: Two thirds of voters polled now say they are in favor of Proposition 227. But all four major candidates for governor-both Democrats and Republican-plus President Clinton have come out against Prop 227. Meanwhile, English-only advocates around the country will be watching California's election, with an eye to eliminating bilingual education in 48 other states where it currently exists.% ? ESSAY - LIFE SKILLS 101

PHIL PONCE: Now, essayist Anne Taylor Fleming considers an unusual high school course designed to help young people cope with life.

ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING: We've been doing a lot of soul searching about kids who kill. We look at their pictures and shake our heads. How does it happen? Where do they come from? What combination of bad parenting or non-parenting, of access to guns and exposure to video violence or something else altogether turned these baby-faced kids into killers? These are the same questions that are being asked about kids who kill not others but themselves. We read about so-called suicide clusters, the groups of young people in a given neighborhood or suburb or small town who take their own lives one after the other in a painful parody of follow the leader. The latest locale is the small middle class capital city in South Dakota, Pierre, which boasts but one high school, one hospital, and one shopping mall, and an adolescent suicide rate that's off the charts. In the last three years eleven people from ages 12 to 23 have taken their own lives-eight of them teenagers. There have been other clusters in the past few years in Plano, Texas, in Westchester County, New York, and South Boston. It hits rich kids and poor kids, all colors, all nationalities. And even if the teen suicide rate is only half of adults, there has, nonetheless, been a huge increase, a 120 percent jump since 1980 in the suicide rate among 10 to 14 year olds. Among young blacks, the rate has doubled and is now the third leading cause of black teenage deaths. It is precisely that age group who pass through this classroom every year at the Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, California, near where I grew up. Such a class, called Life Skills, would have been unthinkable back then. We had our heads on math and history and occasionally the opposite sex. Nobody was talking about life skills, about self worth, and drug use, and gang problems, and sexually transmitted diseases, and yes, suicide, precisely all the things that Al Trundle talks about every day of his life to seventh graders, who lives seem much more complex than ours ever were and scarier.

AL TRUNDLE: What might be going through your mind as a kid who doesn't get a whole lot, Jess?

YOUNG GIRL: If I kill myself, maybe people will start to realize who I am, have a moment of, you know, peace with me, people will start to realize, you know, what a great person I was and stuff like that.

ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING: Listening to these kids is to be reminded of the loneliness, the awkwardness of changing bodies and bad skin and peer pressure. Who are you? What are you? Have a smoke. Have a drink. Have a kid. In some ways, of course, it's just the age-old drama of being on the cusp of adolescence. But now it comes with a new twist: often absent parents and their opposite, over-demanding parents, and much more lethal temptations-drugs and gangs and guns, the weapon of choice for kids who kill themselves.

AL TRUNDLE: How many of these things have ever caused you to maybe feel so overwhelmed that you really started thinking, maybe, gosh, the only way out for me, the only way to get over my depression, the only way to get-keep from being teased and harassed is for me to take my own life? And I want you to raise your hand. I just want you to think about.

ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING: So these 12 and 13 year olds talk in a safe place about conflict points and about learning to accept yourself with all your hopes and dreams and imperfections. And if this seems in any way too trendy, it doesn't feel that way sitting at one of these small tables.

AL TRUNDLE: You're going to write a letter to an imaginary friend, so to speak. A friend who's written you a letter explaining to you that they are thinking about taking their life. This friend is asking for your help, so you decide to write them back. In that letter, I want you to state your views, your understanding of suicide.

ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING: It feels as basic as can be, as elemental as spelling in today's world, a way to help at least some of our kids fight offthe darkness that sometimes threatens to swallow up whole a young life. I'm Anne Taylor Fleming.% ? RECAP

PHIL PONCE: Again, the major stories of this Memorial Day Indonesian President B. J. Habibie announced plans for major political reforms. Defense Secretary Cohen said U.S. forces could still quickly and decisively strike Iraq even with the withdrawal of an American aircraft carrier from the Gulf. And federal investigators said a bomb caused the explosion at an Illinois church yesterday% ? MEMORIAL DAY

PHIL PONCE: Finally, this Memorial Day, NewsHour contributor Robert Pinksy, Poet Laureate of the United States.

ROBERT PINSKY, Poet Laureate: Here are two poems that deal with the war that for people in my generation may always be in a lot of ways "the" war. First, a passage about Vietnam from "Serpent Knowledge." In my book-length poem "An Explanation of America." In the poem I address a child. From "An Explanation of America:" "On television I used to see each week Americans descending in machines with wasted bravery and blood, to spread pain and vast fires amid a foreign place among the strangers to whom we were new. Americans, the spook or Golan there. I think it made our country bolder forever. I don't mean better or not better, but merely as though a person should come to a certain place and have his hair turn gray that very night. Someday the war in Southeast Asia, somewhere, perhaps for you and people younger than you, will be the kind of history and pain Sugumtton is for me, but never tamed or history for me, I think. I think that I may always feel as if I lived in a time when the country aged itself, more lonely together in our common strangeness, as if we were a family and some members had done an awful thing on a road at night and all of us had grown white hair or tails, and though the tails or white hair would afflict only that generation then alive and of a certain age, regardless of whether they were the ones that did or planned the thing, or even heard about it. Nevertheless, the members of that family ever after would bear some consequence or demarcation, forgotten maybe, taken for granted, a trait, a new syllable buried in their name."

ROBERT PINSKY: And here's a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa, the distinguished American poet who's a veteran of the war in Vietnam. The poem is from Komunyakaa's book, "Dien Cai Dau." "Facing It." "My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn't, damn it, no tears. I'm stone. I'm flesh. My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. I turn this way, the stone lets me go. I turn that way, I'm inside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial again, depending on the light to make a difference. I go down the 58,022 names, half expecting to find my own in letters like smoke. I touched the name Andrew Johnson. I see the booby traps' white flash. Names shimmer on a woman's blouse, but when she walks away, the names stay on the wall. Brush strokes flash. A red bird's wings cutting across my stare. The sky-a plane in the sky-a white vet's image floats closer to me-then his pale eyes look through mine. I'm a window. He's lost his right arm inside the stone. In the black mirror a woman's trying to erase names-no-she's brushing a boy's hair."

PHIL PONCE: We'll be with you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. Enjoy the rest of the holiday. I'm Phil Ponce. Thank you and good night.