Sg Tao
Jin 9.0
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Kung Sheung Daily News
9.6.80
Tin Tin Daily News 8.6.80
The Centre Daily News 7.6.80
The most welcomed reform proposed in the Green Paper is probably the extension of the franchise. It is expected that this will change people's apathy towards Urban Council elections. The district boards are a valuable innovation which will give citizens a chance to take part in district administration and which will meet the needs in each district.
However, it is rather disappointing that . . . the ratio between appointed and. elected members in the Urban Council is to be maintained at 1:1. And the powers of elected members will not be raised. As for the district boards, only those in the New Territories will have elected members while those in urban areas are either appointed or official members. (It is a separate issue for Urbco members to sit on district boards.) Such a double standard is bound to disappoint people who wish to see Hong Kong move to a more democratic form of government.
The decision to extend the franchise will win unanimous support.
In view of the rapid population growth in the New Territories and the drastic changes in the population structure, it is a timely move to raise administrative efficiency at the district level.
In relative terms, district boards in urban areas are, politically and administratively far less effective than their counterparts in the New Territories. Firstly, each urban district board can have only two elected members at most while other members are either appointed or are Government officials. This overwhelming imbalance will not be able to raise to a large extent citizens' interest in the elections. Secondly, district boards in urban areas do not have clearly define powers and terms of reference. Their influence is at best advisory in nature.
Judging from the Green Paper, Hong Kong's district administration and consultative system in the future are bound to be overlapping. Such a situation will run counter to the principle of a modern efficient government.
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If such a “link” (i.e. the district boards) is to serve its real purposes, we feel that it is by no means adequate to have councillors from various constituencies participating in the city district offices' co-ordination work.
To enable the "link" to do its job well, a constituency should be represented by more than one member on the district board. In fact, every 10 000 eligible voters should be represented by one councillor. The board should hold regular meetings to debate various issues within the constituency and reflect views of the residents within the constituency directly to the Legislative Council.
Secondly, each district should be represented by at least one councillor on Legco in an ex officio capacity.
In other words, district councillors should have direct contact with Legco instead of with Urbco, which is only given limited powers under the present system. If the Government feels that this sytem may duplicate the functions of the Urban Council, it can disband Urbco or turn it into an executive arın.
In the Green Paper, the Government emphasises control by the "central government" and stresses that there will be no change in the status of either the Executive or Legislative Council, or in the scope of the Urban Council. We believe the Beijing authorities will agree with the spirit behind the Green Paper as it will forestall any attempt at an "independent Hong Kong."
Judging from various aspects, we feel that the Green Paper covers a large area, with the emphasis on consolidating the powers of the "central government."