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Paper earlier. This incident of 'executive action followed by legislation' should not be repeated so as not to give the public a bad impression that the Government is high-handed.
After DB members have joined the Urban Council, will factional struggle and conflict of interest thus arise? I should say that if the DB members to be seated on the Urban Council are short-sighted and narrow-minded, taking care of district interest only and failing to serve the Whole Council and all the people as a whole, there is, of course, such a possibility. If all Urban Councillors recognize the fact that they are in the same boat, understand what is urgency, priority and fair allocation of resources and let overall public interest go first, I believe that the so-called struggle and conflict can be reduced to the minimum. Unless somebody intends to repel and to contend with DB members in order to protect himself, conflict and struggle will definitely not arise.
In order to maintain the Urban Council's glorious history of over a century, its good image of excellent services to the public and, for the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong, we should make concerted efforts to build up a beautiful Hong Kong and jointly contribute to the improvement of our people's life.
In order to maintain their relationship with the districts, elected Urban Councillors not only have to stand for DB elections, but also have to be appointed by the Government as co-opted members of Area Committees and select committees on urban services, or be allowed to attend related District Board meetings.
(3) The Legislative Council
In order to maintain the social stability and the confidence of people from various strata as well as foreign traders in Hong Kong, it is very important for the representative government to develop steadily and progressively. This is also the wish of the majority of Hong Kong population.
I have all along been advocating the introduction of a number of directly elected members into the Legislative Council in 1988 and the cancellation of electoral college seats elected among District Boards. The latter proposal has already been provided for in the White Paper and the former will be implemented in 1991. Though I am not too satisfied with this, I still think that this is acceptable because even though we are not 100 per cent successful in our fight for democracy, we are not getting nothing in the end.
1991 brings us a new glimpse of hope and makes us feel more confident in developing towards democracy. As there is still some time before 1991, we should strengthen our work in civic education and actively make the preparation so as to ensure that the first term direct elections to the Legislative Council will be held in a stable environment and capable persons will be elected to serve the people of Hong Kong for the benefit of the community.
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It is a pity that only a short term development plan is drawn in the White Paper and it lacks long term perspective. There is also no further concrete arrangements for the increase and development of directly elected seats and for the future status of official and appointed members.
I think that if the representative government develops towards democracy and reaches maturity, the ideal composition of the Legislative Council should be 50 per cent indirectly elected seats and 50 per cent directly elected ones.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks I support your motion.
MR. PAO PING-WING (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, concerning the White Paper released yesterday as a whole, I personally think that it is prudent albeit a little bit conservative. But it is an active one as far as the representative government is concerned. Firstly, the Government has proposed that there will be ten directly elected seats in 1991 to the Legislative Council. This is an important promise. It is rather conservative because although spiritually the Government supports the view of direct elections, it hesitates to introduce great changes over the next three years. Of course, the Government has its own reasons. I think there are three reasons which make the Government hesitate to introduce direct elections hastily. Firstly, it is often mentioned in the White Paper that the change of representative government has to be in line with the Joint Declaration and the convergence with the Basic Law. For this reason, the Government is waiting for promulgation of the Basic Law in 1990 wherein direct elections are permitted. Then this will be in line with the Basic Law. Secondly, although people have expressed their views in the Survey Office Report that they are in favour of direct election in principle but they have divergent views on the timing of introducing direct election. The third reason may be that if the Government is determined to have direct elections to Legislative Council in 1989, they may encounter practical problems. That may be the reason why the Government has taken a conservative and yet positive step. On the other hand, there are certain contradictions in the White Paper especially concerning the relationship between the District Boards and the Urban Council. I will comment on them one by one. First of all, I would like to comment on Chapter 3 concerning directly elected Legislative members. Para. 29 of Chapter 3 states that there will be 10 directly elected seats in 1991 in geographical based constituencies. Although we cannot have direct elections in 1988 I am happy to say that the Government has given a promise that it will be introduced in 1991. The Chinese and the Hong Kong Governments appear to have a consensus that there should be direct elections not only after 1997 but also before that concerning the political system of Hong Kong. It will boost people's confidence. Although some people say it will be a bit late if direct election is introduced in 1991 I don't think the problem will not be great. After we have direct elections, it will not revert back later and it is only the beginning. The most important thing is how to develop a democratic and representative