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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Let us first examine the issue of our future. If the Chairman asks me today if the Urban Council had a standpoint on the issue of transition, then I would say that the answer was no. Have the 41 Councillors discuss transition matters? The answer is no. Do we have a timetable? The answer is no. Do we have an actual agenda or plan for this issue? The answer is no. If the answers are no, then what would happen? In matters of transition, we are already lagging behind the situation. If this happens to a sizable company, then one can say that the company lags behind the market. The Chief Executive and the Provisional Legislature have come into being, and arrangements for the Executive Council and the civil service establishment might be announced in late January. In other words, the administrative and legislature set-ups of the Special Administrative Region Government have been formed one after the other. Yet we have remained in the stage where Councillors express, through this Debate, different opinions on transition matters and discuss whether or not we should have appointed seats, whether or not we should make the transition without re-election, whether or not the two Municipal Councils should be merged as one, whether or not this council should be called the Municipal Council or the Provisional Municipal Council, and whether discussions should be held with the Chinese side or the Chief Executive. Is there a coordinator or a mechanism in the Urban Council to attend to this? The answer is no. Precisely because there is neither coordination nor a mechanism, the Councillors find it necessary to air their own views at this Annual Conventional Debate. A Councillor has suggested that the Chairmen of the 14 or 15 Select Committees should get together for discussions. I feel that the Chairmen of Select Committees are merely convenors who handle the affairs of their own Select Committees, and that they are absolutely not in a position to represent the 41 Councillors on the overall issue of the Urban Council's transition. Mr. Chairman, it is still not too late to deal with this matter. My concrete suggestion is as follows: Firstly, I hope that we will be able to hold, in late January or early February, a special meeting to be attended by the 41 Councillors at which we will get together and talk about it. This may result in two groups of opinions. The first group might be about standpoints on which consensus has been reached. For instance, we may feel that we should be allowed to remain in the Council and to ride the through train, and that there should be reorganization rather than reelection. The second group of opinions will probably be about issues on which consensus cannot be reached, for instance, whether or not there should be appointed seats when reorganization takes place. If we are all to remain in the Council, then should anyone be allowed to join us? We should categorize these opinions into two types of standpoint. We tried that when we reviewed the entire political structure. This is not requiring the minority to obey the majority. After the opinions have been categorized, we will be able to see what the majority thinks and how the minority feels. Following the systematic categorization of the different standpoints, we should make an appointment to see the Chief Executive. It is hoped that the Chief Executive will be able to
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