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sense of taking care of the elderly so that our old people will no longer be regarded as a burden or a sort of responsibility which people would like to pass on to others.
2.
To increase hotline service for consultation and complaints In Hong Kong, hotline service for the prevention of child or woman abuse has been provided for quite a long time, but similar service solely aimed at the prevention and complaint of ill-treatment of the elderly is not available yet. The existing hotline specially for the elderly is only restricted to the level of case guidance, we still do not have any service specially designed to handle ill-treatment of the elderly. In fact, this kind of service is very effective in preventing elderly from being ill-treated. Not only does it encourage complaints and make possible prosecution, it also indirectly acts as a kind of deterrent against ill-treatment of the elderly, thereby, reducing the number of mishaps.
3. To provide additional medical service for the elderly
Finally, I suggest the government to enhance its medical service for the elderly so as to prevent ill-treatment of elderly from taking place. According to medical staff concerned, many of the elderly involved in ill-treatment cases suffer from chronic diseases. It will be considered a form of help if these aged persons can be given regular visits. On the other hand, services like day centers and community nurses should also be increased. By doing so, an elderly can become less burdensome to the family while he/she can learn how to get adapted to city life.
Despite the great number of cases in which elderly people are ill-treated or deserted, the new generation has, in fact, done a lot in solving the problem of the aged. Nowadays, traditional concepts of 'respecting the elderly, providing for the elderly' has wavered, but since the government has formulated no policy to fully take care of the elderly, it is mainly the responsibility of the sons and daughters to take care of their own parents. What an elderly needs is not just 'provisions' from his/her children, but also 'respect' from others so neither the concept of 'respecting the elderly' nor 'providing for the elderly' should be neglected.
Finally, I would still like to emphasize that the government should reconsider setting up a 'Central Provident Fund' in order to get security for the livelihood of the retired and the elderly during their late years.
Furthermore, the Urban Council should promote popularization of entertainment, cultural and recreational activities as well as improving the existing old-styled recreational facilities in order to meet the practical needs of the public. It is also hoped that the new policy on hawkers can be drawn up and implemented at an earlier date, and that all government departments concerned would cooperate to solve the hawkers' problems which affect the entire environment of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
(Mr. CHOW Wai-keung left at 3:36 p.m.)
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MR. RONNIE M. C. WONG (in English): Mr. Chairman, in my first annual debate speech in January 1987, I mentioned about the pollution problem around the Hong Kong waters and indeed last swimming season there were quite a number of beaches whose water quality were declared not fit for swimming and had to be closed. I am very glad to see that the government last year decided to spend HK$10 billion over the next 10 years to fight the pollution problem in Hong Kong.
Since the air pollution and noise pollution problem do not have yet any direct impact on Urban Council's activities, I'll leave these to the EPD to deal with. But as to the pollution problem around Hong Kong waters, in particular the cleaning up of the garbage off the harbour and the beaches, I think this council should be playing a more active role in dealing with the marine pollution problem which directly affects all the beaches managed by this council.
Right now the Marine Department is responsible for cleaning up the harbour's floating garbage which I think should be done by this council and I deeply believe that with the human resources, the financial autonomy, the experience and expertise in dealing with garbage that this council possessed, there are a lot more this council can do and a better result can be achieved in respect of cleaning our harbour and beaches.
The Customs and Excise Department, the police department and even the Agriculture and Fisheries Department have their own fleet of boats to carry out their duties around Hong Kong waters, I don't see any reason why the responsibilities of cleaning up garbages off the Hong Kong waters cannot be done by this council.
The next topic I would like to talk about relates to the problem on hawkers control. The problem on hawkers control has long been a headache for this council, one of the main elements making it difficult to solve is that the existence of the hawkers on the street is to a certain extent a 'need' and informally 'approved' by the general public. Whenever people needed to go out to buy vegetable, fish, meat, etc. for making their lunch and dinner they think of going to market and if the market is not near by they go to hawkers, and in most cases they go to both the market and hawkers.
I personally think that the ultimate solution to tackle this problem lies with the customers themselves, if their shopping habit can be changed and diverted from getting things from the street hawkers, to getting things from UC's markets and supermarkets, then these street hawkers will vanish automatically. It sounds so simple and easy, but changing the general public's shopping pattern is a very tough job and is a very long process.
Whether the market is easily accessible and nearby,
whether the market has a complete line of goods that the customers want,
whether the market has enough varieties to choose from,
whether the price is cheap enough,
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