2.
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5.
Tighten up supervision of financial institutions, real estate companies etc., and monitor the connection between them and the media.
Increase powers and resources of the Consumer Council.
Set up a separate body to safeguard the consumers' interests in the operation of franchised public services of all kinds.
Strengthen public representation on environmental protection agencies.
Are the above realistic and possible? Would they meet with favour among people in Hong Kong? The suggestions present an important issue for two linked reasons. The first is stated clearly in the introduction to Hong Kong Administrative Law (by Clark, Lai and Luk):-
"Ever since the signing of the Sino-British Agreement on the future
of Hong Kong in 1984, local political awareness has expanded. Most public policy issues are examined, if not defined, in terms of the future
As important as constitutional issues will be in defining the future SAR Government, the ordinary citizen will continue to encounter the system through the administrative processes of government, rather than through the courts and the legal profession. The single largest concentration of power in any state is its bureaucracy and it is the bureaucracy which exercises legal power.
I believe this to be the reason why administrative reform may be so crucial to Hong Kong's autonomy at both the micro and macro levels.
The second reason was argued with verve by the government of the United Kingdom in 1952 when, in a context distinct to that of Hong Kong, the following was said: -
"[There are] methods of reconciling the essential basis of
self-government (i.e. government by consent of the people) with the necessity for stable administration, and with the need for ensuring that the executive Government, which rests ultimately on the consent of the people, shall have adequate power and discretion as to its actions while remaining in the last resort accountable either to the people directly or to their elected representatives .... Care must be taken to ensure that [there are] criteria against which can be judged not only the constitutional instruments upon which the Government of any territory is based, but also the practical operation of those instruments, and of any unwritten, but generally observed, customs and practices: i.e. the factors must be such as to provide a test