Page 253 of 259
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
DR. BELL:- Mr. Chairman, on a point of clarification, is Mr. Hu not in order if he buries somebody before he exhumes them?
CHAIRMAN:- I can't answer that (Laughter). May we proceed to your Motion Mr. Hu?
MR. HU:- Mr. Chairman, before I come to the Motion (Laughter) - only one last sentence you did not hear (Laughter)--I say that I would urge the Government to look into this matter-that's what I want to say.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, may I congratulate you for allowing the subject to be exhumed (Laughter).
CHAIRMAN:- Mr. Hu.
MR. HU:- You mean my Motion? (Laughter).
CHAIRMAN:- Yes.
(Dr. Denny M. H. HUANG left the meeting at this point).
(2) MR. HENRY H. L. Hu moved the following motion:-
"That this Council request the Government to lay down as a general matter of policy that the proposed Urban District Officers co-operate closely with the Ward System of this Council."
He said:- Mr. Chairman, it may be a surprise that both the idea of Ward System and the creation of Urban District Officers perhaps originated from this Council. In May, 1965 a motion to adopt the Ward system in Hong Kong was proposed by Dr. Raymond LEE and was adopted without opposition. On the 1st of December, 1967 Mr. John BLAKER in his Annual Debate spoke about the idea of establishing Urban District Officers in order "to improve the understanding of people's aspiration wanted by the Government and to explain the Government's action and policy to the people." It is therefore about two months earlier than this idea was first revealed in the Legislative Council. I should think that the general principle of such system has already been sufficiently explained by the relevant authorities. His Excellency the Governor also mentioned about the Urban District Officer in his speech on the Budget Day about a week ago. I would be of the view that before the final decision taken by the Government, this matter should be debated in the Urban Council.
The Ward system was intended to bridge the gap between the government and the people. Since its establishment, many positive results were achieved toward this end. We are not concerned with the feeling of general public about a specific governmental policy. What we have done in the past is only to transmit the complaints made by the local residents to respective government departments in a more presentable way without having more power than the local residents themselves. We of course at the same time try our best to explain government policy to the ordinary citizens who pay us a visit in the ward. I should say that the ward system is a success.
The success of ward system may reflect the unwillingness of governmental officials to contact the ordinary people. A warning must be issued here. Had the governmental officials been so willing to approach the man in the street, there would at least be less gap between the Government and people. Some of them purposely keep themselves away from the ordinary people or they think themselves much superior to the man in street. If in future the Urban District Officers still maintain their traditional attitude toward our citizens, then it would be useless to set up such office. I hope it is not the case. The main purpose of setting up such office is to serve not to rule.
But in any case it cannot take the place of the reform of local administration because Urban District Officers are still the government officials and the step does not go an inch further to attain the goal that local administration should be handled by local people in an effective and responsible manner. I would press the Government to have such reform either on the local scale or in central government without unnecessary delay. I regret to say that since the publication of two reports, namely the Urban Council Report and the Working Party's Report, nothing more is heard.
In order to render better service to the public more effectively I would suggest that in future a special building should be provided in a given locality. In this building, we can find ward office, urban district office, kai-fong association office, medical office, social welfare office, etc. In other words, any local inhabitants who have any problems which cannot be solved by themselves can go into that building and proper assistance will be obtained. The staff of the local urban district office should also be at the service of the ward office. Only in such circumstances, Mr. Chairman, can ward members act as local ombudsmen. Before the Government has reached any decision concerning the question of ombudsman, it would perhaps be worthwhile to try on local basis.
With this remark, Mr. Chairman, may I have the pleasure to propose the present motion standing in my name.
Mr. Chairman, I think that is not outside the jurisdiction. (Laughter) (Applause).
480
481
Page 259
Page 254 of 259
is not present in the original text, hence not included. Similarly, other non-relevant texts are not included in the output. The output is formatted according to the given instructions. The original text has been proofread and formatted into HTML usingfor paragraphs.