HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
with sufficient powers to enforce observance of adequate legislation, that new and realistic tenancy terms must be expedited for use and modern management techniques adopted, otherwise, we will never achieve any level of near-efficient management in the operation of our markets.
Mr. Chairman, I was very pleased to hear the Commissioner for Resettlement say recently that he was determined to restore order in the estates. Mr. LIGHTBODY also called for action on a grand scale to restore dignified living conditions, to improve management methods and to hold the line for those who seek to profit themselves regardless of the comfort, convenience or even safety of others. I hope that included in his plans are some realistic approaches to some appropriate form of tenancy agreement between the Department and the residents.
Government is the biggest landlord in the Colony and it is regrettable that there is not a great measure of control over tenants. New legislation must be introduced to put more teeth into existing conditions to hold the tenant responsible for his and his family's anti-social conducts, including storage of arms, ammunition and explosives, storage and trafficking of drugs, unauthorized supply of electric current from the flat to cooked food and hawker stalls and others, littering, etc., with penalties which include eviction.
I hope Mr. LIGHTBODY's determination will come to fruition before April 1973, when Councillors and not Officials will be accountable for deficiencies at public meetings and the Official will be alleviated from being castigated time and time again. I wonder, too, if the White Paper was designed to keep those Councillors quiet who are most persistent in seeking answers from Officials at public meetings.
Before resuming my seat, I reiterate my plea for immediate action in having appropriate legislation through revision of existing laws and by-laws dealing with higher standard of hygiene, a realistic tenancy agreement for resettlement estates, and employment of modern techniques for better management of our markets, otherwise, any effort for improvements will be useless.
Sir, I beg to support the motion before Council. (Applause).
MRS. ELSIE ELLIOTT:-For the first time in my 8 years on this Council, and for reasons that I shall later explain, I do not intend to support the Motion on the Aims of the Council for the year to come. Many of the aims are merely eye-wash, and should be called, not aims, but dreams.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
First, I should like to ask the Government just what this Council is supposed to be. Does it really represent the people, or is it only intended to be a rubber-stamp, or a democratic decoration to cheat the gullible?
In these 8 years, the only function I have seen this Council perform to any great extent is the function of a rubber-stamp. From past experience on the Council, I have seen policies laid down by Government officials, who can always be certain of enough raised hands to put through their policies. In the implementation of these policies, of course, if the community is not satisfied the Council will be the scapegoat - a willing scapegoat, so it seems.
The White Paper proposes to eliminate the officials from the Urban Council. This may give the impression (and no doubt it is intended by the Government to give this impression) that something is going to be changed, that we shall be more democratic.
If any member of the public hopes, or fears, any changes, may I say with assurance that there is no cause for either hope or fear, as nothing is going to be changed by this move. The officials are still going to decide policies, and the majority of Members on the Council are still going to endorse them. When anything goes wrong, we shall deservedly be the scapegoats if we continue as a Council to function as rubber-stamps.
We have often been blamed by the Government and the public for the mess in the resettlement estates, as if it is our duty to walk around every day and implement the policies ourselves; we have been blamed for the dirt in the streets and on the beaches; we have been blamed for the corrupt methods used in the allocation of hawker sites, in the licensing of restaurants, in the illegal letting of resettlement rooms, and a thousand and one other malpractices that exist in the Resettlement and Urban Services Departments in which we have some jurisdiction.
We deserve to be maligned, because we take no steps either to investigate or to eliminate these malpractices and inefficiencies. The consequence is that the Urban Services Department, with which our work is most closely connected, is known to be among the most corrupt and inefficient in Hong Kong.
Just how democratic this Council is has recently been seen in the decision that led to rioting on 7th July. This foolish decision brought disgrace to us all. Even the police realized what this decision might lead to, yet on this so-called democratic Council there was no Member of the Recreation and Amenities Select Committee to speak for the aspirations of youth, no understanding of the feelings of the Chinese
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