HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 1 March 1990
香港立法局 一九九○年三月一日
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part. We must concentrate our efforts on next year's direct elections. Now more than ever before, we must focus some energies on communicating widespread civic responsibility among Hong Kong people so they feel comfortable and competent to get out and vote. They need to be able to identify those who can represent them well
those who are articulate and conversant with the many
issues that Hong Kong is facing today.
Distinguished author and professor Peter DRUCKER in his newest book, The New Realities, focuses attention on the new transnational world in which we live. It gives us a new vision evolving out of the information age. He says, "The realities are different from the issues on which politicians, economists, scholars, businessmen, union leaders, still fix their attention, still write books, still make speeches. The convincing proof of this is the profound sense of unreality which characterizes so much of today's politics and of today's economics."
What struck me most strongly in DRUCKER's work was his zeroing in on the social impacts of information. The information economy puts new force and new responsibilities on the shoulders of each one of us as individuals.
All of us know that Hong Kong is faced with a lengthy agenda of issues all of them important; all of them requiring attention. Yet if we are to be governed well, priorities must be set and a balance must be achieved in addressing these issues. A major step on the road to democracy is through everyone in the community understanding this concept. Understanding must go beyond the Chambers of Legislative Council and the Halls of Government.
On our part, then, as Legislative Councillors, we must support all efforts to inform citizens in public policy based on education at the grass roots level. We are looking at a transformation in how Hong Kong people are to be involved in politics. It is this new "how" the "how to be involved" that is at the crux of our successful governance through the 1990s and beyond.
So much negative news confronts us daily. We need to strive for balance in sharing information. We need to see the positive that is a big part of Hong Kong, too. The media can go a long way in helping to rebuild Hong Kong's confidence, and I welcome their support.
I also sincerely believe it is time to stop the plethora of surveys that buffet us with how many of our best and brightest are leaving Hong Kong and of how many more of us want to leave, but cannot. It is time to move our surveys to Toronto, Sydney and New York. How do we attract investment? How do we attract Hong Kong people back to Hong Kong? How many people in these