SOUTH CHINA MORNING
1/6/68
Post
Local people should have right to govern own affairs
For political and geographical reasons, it, was not possible for Hong- kong to become an independent state within the foreseeable future, said Mr Hilton Cheong-Leen, Chairman of the Hongkong Civic Association, yesterday.
He was speaking at the Chinese YMCA Far East Train- ing Institute on "The Future of Municipal Government in Hong- kong."
"However, as we become in- creasingly industrial and sophis- ticated, and as educational and living standards rise, we should inevitably have the right to govern our own local affairs,” he said.
He said Hongkong people should be represented, whether directly or indirectly, on the Legislative and Executive Coun- cils.
"The Legislative Council is a body which makes Hongkong's laws and also decides how much money should be spent annually on education, medicine and health, social welfare and other vital services to the public," said Mr Cheong-Leen.
"It is a fundamental truth of any democratic "society that there should be no taxation with- out representation. The Civic Association subperibes to this basic principle, and urges the United Kingdom Government to give the people of Hongkong some form of direct, or even in direct, elected representation in the Legislative and Executive Councils."
Without representatives in these two Councils, any change in the local Government system would be nothing more than window-dressing and a mere sop to democratic principles as ap- plying to Hongkong, he said.
Given right
He said the Civic Association proposed the enlarging of the Legislative and Executive Coun- cils so that a number of clested Urban Councillors be given the right to sit on both Councils.
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Further, the Urban Council should be expanded into a Municipal Council with more elected members and its scope progressively widened to include education, medical services, social welfare and youth activi- ties.
This would mean introducing ar eletted Mayor for the Muni- cipal Council, which would have the right to collect rates and exercise financial responsibility.
The ten City District Officers set up recently by the Govern- ment should prepare the way for the formation, at a later date, of
two bilingual District Councils on Hongkong Island and Kow- loon respectively,
"A colonial Government, no matter how liberal or paternalis- tic, is basically authoritarian and therefore stultifying to political progress. The authoritarian na- ture of Hongkong's colonial Government has been the main cause for the political sclerosis that widely exists among local residents with voting rights," Mr Cheong-Leen said.
"Yet despite the political apathy among those who have the right to vote, there is a growing desire among our young people to grow up in a Hong- kong that is progressing towards self-government.”
Mr Cheong-Leen said it was hoped the British Common- wealth Office would be en- lightened enough to anticipate this "changing of the guard" and keep up pressure for modernising Hongkong's archaic colonial political structure.
Mr.
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ANG 68
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RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No. 63 2. JUN968
DAS the 1/1