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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The wordings of the Article 157 appear to retain a power for the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to interpret those Articles in the Basic Law which are within the autonomy of the SAR. However, we must stress that in the Article 157 the SAR courts are the only organ capable of interpreting the Articles within the SAR's autonomy. This is consistent with what is stated in the Joint Declaration that the SAR will enjoy independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.
Against this background, I am all for the establishment of the Committee for the Basic Law of Hong Kong SAR of the NPC Standing Committee to advise on matters arising from Article 17, Article 18, 157 and 158. But, we must have the right membership and I would like to suggest that it should consist of members, primarily from the legal and judicial circles and, its advice, if passed by a majority, should be binding on the Standing Committee of the NPC.
Before I close, I would like to impose on the goodwill of our media friends to widely publicize today's debate so as to encourage more people to put forward their views. With more people taking part in this consultation exercise, the Basic Law Drafting Committee would be in a better position to do their work in shaping the future of Hong Kong and the well-being of those who live, build and work for the stability and prosperity of this great city—a place we call home.
Sir, I am pleased to second.
MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN (in English):—Mr. Chairman, as many of us are speaking today, I shall be as brief as I can.
Referring to Articles 11, 14, 18, 157 and 158 of the Draft Basic Law, I lay on the table as attachments to my speech and for recording in the Hansard, two Hong Kong Civic Association memoranda dated 13 and 18 September, 1989 respectively incorporating certain views to which I subscribe on the five Articles in question.
I also subscribe to the views on the future Legislature and the Chief Executive as stated in the two memoranda, particularly the one dated 18 September 1989 (Appendixes 1 and 2).
It should be noted that my views with just a few refinements are not too different from the OMELCO model for the future legislature. I would also note that the 4.4.2 model of the group of 89 is not too far off from the OMELCO model.
I would now like to make a few additional comments on the draft Basic Law.
Future role of Municipal Councils
There are at present two municipal councils, the Urban Council with its history of over 100 years and the recently formed Regional Council. I believe that both municipal councils should continue to have indirectly elected representatives on the legislature in 1991, 1995, 1999 and until such time as the legislature is entirely directly elected.
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Whether the municipal councils will be constituted as electoral colleges or as a special type of functional constituency is not so important, but because they play a very significant role in the daily lives of our nearly six million population, they should be represented on the legislature.
I would even go further and propose that as new towns expand to have a population of one million each, they could each have their own municipal councils with a representative elected to the legislature.
District Boards
As for the District Boards, which currently number 19, I see no reason why they could not constitute a special type of Functional Constituency—since their total number exceeds 400 Councillors with the right to elect say 3 or 4 representatives to the Legislature in 1991, 1995 and 1999, representing Hong Kong Island, Urban Kowloon and the New Territories.
Again, as in the case of the municipal councils, I do not think it matters too much if they are called Functional Constituencies or Electoral Colleges.
One Council—Two Chambers for the Legislature Proposal This proposal was only recently floated for public discussion. I do not favour it for a number of reasons:
Firstly, it is cumbersome in that it will waste the time of many top-level and highly paid Civil Servants who will have to appear separately before both chambers to explain draft bills, policies, answer questions, etc. This two-chamber system will definitely affect negatively the efficiency and effectiveness of the legislature.
Secondly, the One-Council-Two-Chambers system will tend to be more divisive, while the single-chamber system will tend to be more cohesive and will encourage councillors to think more of the overall good of the whole Hong Kong community and less of the sectoral interests of their own profession or interest group.
Thirdly, having been a directly elected Urban Councillor for 32 years, an appointed Legislative Councillor for 6 years, an elected Legislative Councillor from an electoral college constituency for 3 years, and also having been appointed temporarily to Executive Council on a number of occasions, my ‘gut feeling' of the One-Council-Two-Chambers system for the future legislature is that we are much better off with the single-chamber legislature if we are to keep Hong Kong as a go-ahead, prosperous and stable city of international stature.
Future role of the New China News Agency
In many ways, the New China News Agency is acting as a local representative office or 'transmission belt' for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing.
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