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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
simply talk about reviewing only the two municipal councils and the District Boards.
The second point is about safeguarding the public's democratic participation. As everyone is aware, a lot of views have been put forth on the review, including the merging of the two tiers of councils/boards or of the two municipal councils. Such a merger obviously would reduce the number of elections. It is generally known that opportunities for public involvement in the formulation of public policies are created through democratic elections. Given such a limited space for democratic development, how are we going to ensure the people's democratic participation in the administration of Hong Kong? This is one of the most important principles. I hope that this principle will be upheld in the course of review.
The third point is that we consider the appointment system should be abolished. As everyone knows, so has he himself stressed, the Chairman is not a democrat but he too talks about the big retrogression in democracy. May I ask the Chairman whether he recalls that when the Provisional Urban Council was set up, we discussed the need to increase the number of appointed members, and he said he was in favour of this, adding that preferably some professionals such as doctors, accountants and architects could be appointed to provide professional advice? Mr. Chairman, may I ask whether those appointed members present include the professionals you named? The answer is very clear. I am a member of the Central and Western District Board and look what kind of people we have appointed to the board. They were our contestants who lost in the elections. All those candidates who lost in the elections were eventually appointed to the District Boards. This so-called appointment system is no more than one guaranteeing that everyone has his share. It is an awarding system and is highly unreliable. Hence, Mr. Chairman, in order to really guard against the big retrogression in democracy, we must ensure that all the seats are elected and are created by referendum. It is only then that there will be no retrogression in democracy. The third point therefore is that we must demand abolition of all the appointed seats.
The last point that we wish to raise is that the powers of the existing two municipals or District Boards must not be curtailed. Even if all the members of the councils/boards are elected, what good would it be if all their powers were transferred back to one bureaucratic body? The fourth point is therefore to ensure that the existing powers of the two municipal councils and District Boards are retained and not reduced. As to whether there is a need to increase our powers or how to improve our efficiency, it is open to discussion.
I hope that all these four principles will be fulfilled in our future review. Lastly I want to make a minor response. I don't see any members of the ADPL today. But then they are often absent from discussions. Anyway, it doesn't matter. What I want to respond to is that at the last meeting, an ADPL member pointed out that the two municipal councils needed to communicate