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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
opinions. All official members should therefore remain neutral. To be fair, they should only explain the policies of the departments which they represent and exercise no voting right.
(b) The number of seats of Unofficial Members is: two-thirds of the seats should go to elected members and one-third to appointed members. The appointment system should only serve as a stop-gap measure and the number of appointed members should be reduced gradually until they are entirely abolished. For the D.B. election scheduled for 1985, the ratio of seats for elected members should be increased to two-thirds whilst that for appointed members cut down to one-third.
(c) The D.B. Chairman and Vice-Chairman should be elected by Unofficial Members from amongst themselves. C.N.T.A. ought to provide sufficient clerical support and other forms of assistance. D.B. Chairman should be given allowances higher than those for ordinary members so that they can devote more time to D.B. work.
(d) To improve the channel of communication between the central government and the districts, D.B. Chairman should automatically become members of the Legislative Council.
(e) To improve communication and to supervise how government departments handle views put forward by D.B.s, members of the District Boards should be allowed to attend meetings of District Management Committees as observers.
In fact, a more effective way to democratize the government in Hong Kong is to merge the Legislative and Executive Councils into one single body with all the seats filled by members elected on universal franchise and given the supreme authority to formulate central policies and enact laws. At the same time, the District Boards with all their members elected should be empowered to make policies at district level after the pattern of local government.
Such reforms should, of course, progress step by step, but there must not be any stalling tactics or half-hearted efforts. In my opinion, all should be completed before 1997 so as to lay a good foundation for the Hong Kong people to govern Hong Kong democratically in the future. This may be one of the major contributions which the Hong Kong Government could now bestow on us. It is really invaluable and I call upon the wise ones serving the Hong Kong Government to give it careful consideration.
Mottos of democracy
I am afraid non-Chinese members of this Council may find it difficult to understand what I have said, particularly the points raised in Paragraph 1.5¢ allow me to supplement it with a few foreign mottos on democracy.
(a) 'Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.'
LINCOLN
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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(b) 'It would be folly to argue that the people cannot make political mistakes. They can and do make grave mistakes. They know it, they pay the penalty, but compared with the mistakes which have been made by every kind of autocracy they are unimportant.'
CALVIN COOLIDGE
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the senior members for their advice so that I am now familiar with the work of the Urban Council. With these remarks, I support the motion.
(Mr. CHAN Chi-kwan left at this point-4.37 p.m.)
MRS. NELLIE FONG (in English):-Mr. Chairman, as a new Council Member attending the annual debate for the first time, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the more senior Council Members for the guidance given to me in various Council matters in my initial nine months. I am also very impressed by the fact that the 30 Council Members coming from different backgrounds could work together so harmoniously utilizing the various talents and abilities on Urban Council matters.
I understand that this is the time in the year where I could express my statement of aims for 1984 and in that I would like to address principally two areas: first on an appeal to the Government to care more for the local people in Hong Kong and secondly on Urban Council finances.
On the appeal to the Government to care more for the local people in Hong Kong:
(1) firstly I would like to talk about giving tax benefits in the form of tax deductions on home mortgage interest. We all know that very few people buy their homes with outright cash. Almost everyone mortgages his home and repays by mortgage instalments. To own your own home is a great pride. It is consistent with Chinese culture. It encourages savings, it gives an individual a stake in the place that he lives in and creates a sense of belonging. I therefore strongly feel that the Government should take the leading role to encourage individuals to own their own home by granting tax deductions to mortgage interest paid. There are of course many considerations to be taken before such introduction, for example, should a maximum amount of mortgage interest deduction be imposed, should it be eligible to one home only, should it be eligible to a self-owned home and not a rented property etc. But no matter how many considerations there are, it should be considered and introduced. I do not think that the loss in tax revenue is so great that the government cannot afford it.
Tax benefits have always been granted to individuals who are provided with free housing by the employer, tax deductions on interest are also allowed when a property is owned through a limited company.