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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL passed over into the jurisdiction of the Urban Council and the new Council as this is where these two departments belong.
Regional
I agree with the Green Paper's proposal for the Executive Council, but in honesty must draw members' attention to paragraph 58 of the Green Paper, which is really the heart of the matter because until we get a ministerial form of Government, the effective power of Government will rest with the Civil Service, and the Legislative Council will remain what it is today: A talking shop and safety valve.
I also agree with the Green Paper that it is far too early to even consider what changes, if any, should be made in the Governor's role. I, personally, think it is absolutely essential in these interim 13 years to have a very strong British Governor to keep Hong Kong's ship on an even keel between the strong east and west winds which will be blowing over the territory. And it will be equally important to have a strong Hong Kong Governor after 1997 for the same reasons. But it is equally important that the system will allow the removal of a Governor who abuses his strong powers. This is going to be a very tricky political and philosophical chestnut to pull out of the fire and it will need a lot of thought and a lot of preparation and really lies at the heart of all future Governmental reforms.
I am sorry the Green Paper omits any mention of salaries for elected LEGCO members and I think what I am now going to say affects not just LEGCO but the Urban Council, the new Regional Council and the District Boards. In fact, when one compares workloads, elected District Board members probably have workloads quite similar to LEGCO members and I believe a conscientious Urban Council member has a larger workload than either a LEGCO or District Board member. The LEGCO workload will increase considerably as more and more responsibility is put on the shoulders of LEGCO members and it will, for all intents and purposes, become a full-time job. I, personally, think it will be necessary to give each LEGCO member his or her own office with a small staff consisting of a Secretary and an office boy plus a very generous expense allowance, which in 1984 dollars I would fix initially at HK$15,000 per month. As I am sure some of our elected colleagues have been finding out in these past few months, there is no such animal as a part-time politician. A politician is a person who, to be elected or re-elected, must work full-time for his or her constituents. You can't be a practicing doctor or practicing lawyer or an efficient businessman and have time left over for politicking or electioneering.
On a practical point, it may be just thoughtlessness on the part of the Government to pick on July as a month to hold elections or it may be Machi the Government to pick on July as a month to hold elections or it may be Machiavellian intent in order to discourage voting. July is notorious for rainy weather, typhoons, heat and holidays, all of which may discourage members of the electoral college from being present. I would suggest that District Board elections and Urban Council elections are brought forward to early January and the electoral college vote is held in late March.
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On another item of detail: If one has an electoral college, then members of the college will have a considerable advantage over non-members when standing for office. I think, therefore, it is necessary to make rules which will prevent more than a certain number of members of the electoral college being nominated to stand for LEGCO. Personally, I would prefer either that only members of the electoral college be allowed to stand for LEGCO or that none of the members of the electoral colleges were allowed to stand.
The electoral system to be used in the electoral college and in direct elections must also be spelled out. I would strongly urge the simplest possible system, i.e., not proportional representation but a simple majority system which should be based only on those present and voting. Absentee voting should be prohibited and the idea mooted in another place of compulsory voting must be resisted. Compulsory voting in Australia results in what is known as the 'donkey vote' where people who have no interest in the issues simply put their mark against the first name on the ballot. Since these are in alphabetical order, many a candidate has changed his surname to be able to get the top spot on the ballot!
I think functional constituencies are a Mandarin's idea of democracy and impractical and a ploy by Civil Servants to preserve some of their influence on the selection of Candidates.
Let me illustrate: As I stand here today, I represent at least 10 constituencies. Firstly, I stand here representing all those of us who have given freely of our time and talents over the years to help the Hong Kong Government refine its policies, to try and keep it on an even-handed course, and to curb those excesses natural to bureaucracy: Arrogance and shortsightedness, i.e., I stand here as one of the Government-appointed representatives of the Hong Kong population. Secondly, I stand here as a representative of the business community and within that business community, I represent the constituency of entrepreneurs as one of many who came with no money at all and no connections, but with a willingness to learn, to work hard, and to take chances. And it was people like us who built the industries, built the trade, attracted the banks and made Hong Kong what it is today, in the process raising the standard of living of millions of people.
Thirdly, I stand here as an expatriate Hong Kong belonger, which is not a very popular constituency to belong to, but I believe the mixture of Western technical know-how with the Chinese willingness to learn and improve on it, the mixture of Western and Eastern culture, the mixture of British and Chinese bureaucracy are all part of what has made the genius and tempo of Hong Kong. Fourthly, I stand here representing the constituency of the middle-aged, i.e., those of us who still have something to contribute but are just about to hand over the torch, who by the year 2000 will either be dead or be too old to take an active part in community life, who have a duty to point the two generations following us in the right direction.