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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
the issue from another angle, the existing colonies have undergone changes. The existence of colony warrants the summing up of the historical experience in this aspect, especially the experience of Hong Kong, as there are great differences between Hong Kong and India.
Regarding history, it should be looked at from an unbiased angle. There is no need to defend it sedulously or cover it up intentionally. One should make comments, complimentary or otherwise, in the way he thinks fit. There were achievements in the past, but there were also unavoidable mistakes as well. From the social development point of view, all the comments made need not be totally critical. As long as there is an objective assessment of history, there will be a special meaning for democratic development and the on-going exchange of Chinese and Western culture in Hong Kong. As Mr. QIAN MU said, 'Only by relying on the past can we understand the present; only when we have a true understanding of the present can real improvement be made.'
Having reviewed the past, it is time for us to look forward to the future together. Last year happened to be an eventful year for the Government of Hong Kong (it seems that I have heard many colleagues using the same phrase many times today). The first event I would like to mention is that Mr. YAM, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, only raised the interest rate (his one and only one tactic) to repel the speculators' attack, which was analogous to a person who swallowed arsenic in order to poison the tiger that intended to eat him. Another event is that property prices fluctuated sharply. As a result, Mr. TUNG, Chief Executive of the SAR, appealed to the public not to buy properties at first but advised them to do so later. Furthermore, there was the 'cyanide' incident in which there was a lack of co-ordination among departments which caused delay in mounting a clean-up operation. The situation was somewhat like that of the bird flu that had been haunting us for half a year. In all these events, it was revealed that the Government lacked the capability to take appropriate action in response to a crisis and there was also a lack of a proper mechanism to cope with emergencies, which always resulted in the Government being at a loss what to do. Take, for instance, the bird flu incident where the Government hastily ordered the mass slaughter of chickens in one day. It hardly realized that with the assistance of the officers whose fingers were all thumbs, it took three clear days to destroy 1.4 million chickens. Nevertheless, it was discovered immediately after the mass slaughter that the corpses of chickens were scattered all over the places where they were slaughtered and some so-called slaughtered chickens were found still alive. Was the deployment of staff by the Government really improper? It seems to me that deploying civilian staff who even lack the physical strength to slaughter chickens to carry out the slaughter operation and requiring staff of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department to undertake a butcher's work are nothing more than a joke. When it is necessary for these officers to slaughter chickens as offerings to gods at home, I believe the persons to do the job are their wives.