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complicated, high technology is introduced and problems arise from the ageing population, there is certainly a substantial increase in Government's medical expenditure. As a result, the citizens will have to pay more in their medical expenses in the future. We hope that the Government will consider changes to the medical services of Hong Kong in a conscientious and cautious way.
In fact, according to my past record of community services, obviously my areas of concern have been housing, medical and educational services and the interests of the grassroot stratum. My work was like that yesterday and it remains the same today and will be the same tomorrow.
Mr. Chairman, as this Council is at the regional level of the 3-tier political structure of Hong Kong, it should be extremely concerned about the development of representative government of Hong Kong and the drafting of the Basic Law for the future Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. In the past year, under the situation of the interference and intervention from China, the Hong Kong Government has become a lame duck and is lack of guts. The high autonomy and one-country-two-systems' as stipulated in the Sino-British Joint Declaration will vanish as time goes by. There will be more people facing the north (or 'shoeshining' for the north). The room for development in Hong Kong's political system will be highly restricted and this will result in serious retrograde consequence.
As soon as the Government publishes the 'White Paper on the development of representative government' at a time before 10 February, the expectation of having direct elections in 1988 will then go up in smoke. This will result in the emigration of more and more local professionals, the loss of confidence in the existing and future Governments (especially when a certain government emphasizes the realization of its sovereignty) and the state of helplessness in the minds of the people. Even though a certain group of people are playing an active role in the elections, they are merely the minority.
Mr. Chairman, please don't take this as a piece of discouraging speech. The real situation may be far more serious and worse than the above description. What the Urban Councillors can do today is to work hard within the restricted terms of reference of this Council. Through our efforts in and improvements to areas of work such as culture, environmental hygiene and hawker etc. in a practical and realistic way, we will be able to cultivate a sense of belonging and to show that we are really serving the citizens.
As a citizen who supports and is concerned about the development of democracy in Hong Kong, I would like to urge the Chinese, British and Hong Kong Governments not to take the Hong people's overall well-being as the greatest stake in their political gambling because history is the best adjudicator on the politicians in office. I would also like to urge the people of Hong Kong to participate and concern themselves with all the discussions on the developments of Hong Kong's political system within this year and to actively participate in the election work in their constituencies. I also believe that 1988 will turn a new era in the history of the development of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks I support your motion.
MR. RONNIE M. C. WONG (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, I would like to discuss three issues today.
1. Legislation concerning triad societies
Under the existing ordinance, any person who is a member of a triad society or claims to be a member of a triad society shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to imprisonment. But there is a loophole in the existing ordinance which therefore exists in name only and fails to have any deterrent effect. Now, there are still many people who claim to be members of triad societies so as to carry out their unlawful activities.
By loophole, I mean that after the police have arrested a suspect who is or claims to be a member of a triad society, the court very often allows him to serve both sentences concurrently, i.e. the penalty for the crime he committed and for being or claiming to be a member of a triad society. As a result, the penalty for the convict actually does not increase because of that offence as the term of imprisonment for that offence is usually shorter than that of other offences. According to precedents, similar situations almost always had the same result. I think that such a situation is extremely unreasonable because the Police usually arrest a triad member only after he has committed a crime. The fact that he is a triad member is not directly related to the nature of the crime he has committed. Therefore, it is too lenient to impose concurrent sentences for the two charges. Moreover, a few years ago the police claimed that organized and major triad groups had already been cracked down and the remaining were just unorganized ones or general criminals who were, in fact, not triads but merely claiming to be. They did so mostly because they thought that this would make the opposite party scared and thus achieving their unlawful purposes. These criminals should be given heavy penalties. However, under the existing circumstances, even though they are charged with such offences as claiming to be triad members, they virtually have no need to serve the sentence for that charge. How can a charge that exists in name only has any deterrent effect?
Under this situation, the existing legislation to deter triad activities can be said to have no positive effect. I therefore urge the authorities concerned to give serious consideration to imposing separate sentences for the convicts to serve so that they get the penalty they deserve and the deterrent effect is thus maintained. Otherwise, we had better nullify the ordinance as this would save much resources and time.
2. Organization of major sports activities
Situated at the heart of Southeast Asia, Hong Kong is an increasingly important focal point for the interflow of eastern and western cultures. Hong
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