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hand, if the statement is made through the mouth of the Government, it must be very important. I am sure nobody would dare to object. From that point of view, I think the way this matter is being handled at the present moment is something extremely wrong. Again the heads of department are trying to sell the Chief Secretary's proposal and criticizing Urban Council's comments on it. They seem to ignore what we have said at this Council. Though things become rather misleading, I am wondering whether this Government has already got a well-laid-out plan to implement the Chief Secretary's proposal. I tended to believe this is the case. It seems that somebody has created public opinion and come to some foregone conclusion and try to implement it and said it is a public opinion.
The second thing I am not satisfied with is: at this stage, we must argue reasonably. Our Members have analysed all the issues from financial and economical points of view. I want to supplement that if there is only one council, we do not need to spend more money; instead, we will save a lot of money because as to the structure, our jurisdiction is limited to the urban area. Administratively, other members have already said that there is duplication of roles and they are creating a lot of confusion, so from that point of view, I am dissatisfied with the political and financial implications of this proposal.
I am rather speechless, but I feel rather dissatisfied. My personal dissatisfaction is not of great importance, but public dissatisfaction will be a matter of considerable importance. I am amending my speech in order not to repeat what others have said. I am proposing a poem which is: North and South should be one family; we should not spread.
MRS. NELLIE FONG (in English): Mr. Chairman, I feel that it has been most unfortunate that the issue of one or more than one council has been handled so poorly and so much misunderstanding has arisen. From all that had been published, the public has interpreted the Urban Council as wanting to extend its jurisdiction to the New Territories and wanting to expand its power. I want to clarify today that I do not think that the existing Urban Council has the knowledge or expertise to handle the New Territories affairs.
Having said that, I do feel that a lot more has to be done before the Government could reach a conclusion on whether or not Hong Kong should have one council or more than one councils. This is an issue much too important for the Government to rush in quickly because once a decision is made on whether to have one or more council, it sets the basic framework and organization of Hong Kong's future local administration structure.
Because the issue is of such paramount importance, I am pleading to the Government to undergo a complete in-depth study on the pros and cons of having one or more than one council in Hong Kong. The in-depth study should directly address the areas of finance, administration, operation, and personnel.
If having two regional councils is likely to cost more, we would like to know approximately how much more.
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If administratively there is a potential possibility of divergencies in policies because of having two councils, we would like to know whether or not such divergencies would be beneficial or detrimental to Hong Kong and how the Urban Services Department or the Government proposes to handle the divergencies.
If there were divergencies in policies, would that cause confusion and inefficiency on the operation aspect and also would such confusion be material to the Hong Kong people?
One should also look at the types of representation that should exist in a council both from the appointed side and from the elected side.
I wish to appeal to the Government to perform an in-depth study to review the various aspects mentioned with a genuine interest to put into place a sound structure for future local administration of Hong Kong. After the in-depth study, if the conclusion is to have one council for Hong Kong, a new council should be formed with the appropriate representation from all areas. On the other hand, if the conclusion is to have more than one council, we should have all the facts laid down before us so that we would know that such decision was made after the issue had been well thought-out and well investigated. Without the in-depth study and the findings, I feel that there are too many speculations on intentions and that it is rather groundless to reach a conclusion on whether or not Hong Kong should have one council or more than one council. With the above, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
Mr. LEE Chik-yuet left at this point—5:31 p.m.)
MR. TONG KAM-BIU (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I would say that the opposite side will certainly win at this debate. Actually, we have heard a lot of comments about the setting up of a second regional council, and I personally have collected a lot of information. Basically, I am for the setting up of another council. As just a general member of the public, perhaps I would simply put across my views from the general point of view. My views are not based on political, economic, or other considerations.
I would say that for a very long time, the Urban Council is one of the most severely criticized public bodies in Hong Kong. The Urban Council is improving all the time, but compared to other Government departments, such as Fire Services Department, Education Department, Housing Department, or even the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, I think we are making progress very slowly and not active enough.
Before I joined the Urban Council, I have heard Councillors say that the problem of controlling hawkers and building market complexes should be transferred back to other Government departments. Now that I have joined the Urban Council for one year, and I understand that the affairs of the Urban Council are very complicated, very important indeed, and each matter of policy and each issue has to do with the benefits of the general public. Each Urban Councillor has
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