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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
not to change the workings or size of this Council and certainly not to take a retrograde step away from direct elections (and let me emphasize here that this Council has pioneered direct elections and has proved not only that they work in the Hong Kong context but that they produce responsible representatives).
As you all know I am very quick to criticize our own failings and inefficiencies within our department. I am not saying we are perfect, but what I am saying, and I think am justified in saying, is: That we run the most efficient Government organization in Hong Kong. And that we have improved the quality of life in Hong Kong immeasurably, and have proved not only that we are a working Council and that we know and understand what we are doing, but that Hong Kong can really be governed by Hong Kong people.
Mr. Chairman, I believe the rudimentary answers to the wrong questions given in the Survey Report do recognize our achievements and I believe make our case that Government should support success and not tinker now with the Urban Council's composition or its workings.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. JOSEPH Y. S. CHAN (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, having read the three reports of the Survey Office, I believe that:
1.
2.
3.
The Survey Office has really done much work in collecting and sorting out public opinion. It gives a clear and definite concept by categorizing and tabulating all kinds of views in a systematic and orderly way. With tables listing opinions of all kinds, the Survey Office has, I believe, made a detailed and fair-minded record of the views collected. In this regard, the report is a reliable and acceptable one.
As regards the two government-commissioned public opinion surveys conducted by market research companies, it is not suitable for me to comment on the appropriateness of the design of the questionnaire since I am no expert in statistics. Among the samples of the submissions from the public carried in the report are those of obvious guiding effect. The inclusion of even these kinds of views make us believe that the report manages to incorporate all kinds of opinions and handle them impartially. It is known from the report that social bodies had been very enthusiastic in expressing their views, showing that more and more organizations are concerned about the affairs of Hong Kong. But from the number of the individuals expressing their own opinions and of those who made no comment in the questionnaire, it is obvious that those who do not make known their views or take any notice of the development of the local political system still make up the majority. The authorities concerned should step up civic education in primary and secondary schools as well as in post-secondary colleges. This is especially true for the promotion work to be continued in various districts where civic education has already been introduced. In no way should it be stopped.
4.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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About the introduction of direct election in the Legislative Council, the majority of the people are in favour of having direct election. It is hoped that the authorities concerned would handle the public opinion properly in this respect and introduce direct election in the Legislative Council in due course.
(Messrs. Lo King-man, Hilton CHEONG-LEEN and Samuel P. W. WONG left the meeting at 3.46 p.m., 3.48 p.m. and 3.50 p.m. respectively.)
MR. PAO PING-WING (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, the Report of the Survey Office has aroused a lot of discussions among the general public. Some people thought that the arrangements of the items in the Report was very inappropriate. Some criticized that it might misguide the public. And some others took the point that the process of collecting public opinions was based on the 'Green Paper on the 1987 Review of Developments in Representative Government'. Therefore, there was nothing wrong with the arrangement of the report.
Mr. Chairman, I am not intending to comment on those views. There may be matters involving professional knowledge, concepts of value or different people with different points of view. Some people may even suggest conducting another survey and producing another report to assess whether this Survey Office Report is acceptable. However, all these are helpless when we consider the future developments of the Representative Government.
Having gone through the Report roughly, I feel that it is rather complicated in terms of both content and arrangement. The common people may encounter difficulties if they want to get a deep and thorough understanding of the Report. Nevertheless, I believe that the Survey Office has done its best in collating relevant information and putting them into the Report in a fair and unbiased way. I would like to express my appreciation to the staff of the Survey Office who have completed an almost impossible task in a short period of few months.
Mr. Chairman, the Report has already been released. The most positive step for the general public to take is to comment on the Report. To put it more clearly, we are not going to agree with, praise or object to this Report. Instead, we should read it with a critical eye and express our views on the issue. In this respect, I would like to raise two principles for the general public to consider and assess the content of this Report.
First, we should not read the statistics of just one chapter, one part or one paragraph alone when considering the Report. We should rather look at the interrelationship among all the statistics contained.
For instance, in page 51 Part I of the Report, it shows that 65,921 out of 137,217 submissions received are against direct elections in 1988. However, about 200,000 people with signatures in support of direct elections are mentioned in the appendices of Part II of the Report. Mr. Chairman, it is not my intention
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