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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
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In fact, when the first bird flu incident broke out in as early as August 1997, I met Dr. T. A. Saw, Deputy Director of Health through prior appointment. At that time, the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood was the first body which made a suggestion to the Government that an interdepartmental working group should be formed to map out contingency measures. Unfortunately, the Government did not accept our suggestion. It was not until things had become uncontrollable that the Government started to form an interdepartmental working group to deal with the avian flu. In this aspect, the Government really took action belatedly.
I wonder how many times of slow response the Government will make before it becomes alerted to a health hazard. We do not hope that a similar incident will occur again. Instead of trying to find out who is to blame after a belated response is made, the Government should learn a lesson from history. It should select key officers from the senior management to form a contingency task force. Based on the various crises that may occur, the responsibility of handling the crises should be taken up by various senior officers with decision-making responsibility and they should perform the duties that fall within their ambit. If an emergency occurs, the head of the task force should come out boldly to handle it with the members. They should be responsible for the issue of press releases, formulation of contingency measures and deployment of staff etc. Only by reacting in this way can the follow-up work be immediate, consistent and efficient. There is no need to shift responsibility onto others whenever an emergency occurs.
The significance of history is that it helps us to understand the present by reviewing the past. If it is still not able to learn a lesson from history, after coming across so many incidents, we should consider whether a review of the existing civil service system should be conducted in order to find out whether the civil service is so incompetent and whether our tax money has been wasted.
With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I support your motion.
MISS CHRISTINA TING YUK-CHEE (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, in recent years, various kinds of diseases had done great harm to Hong Kong. First, there was the incident of contaminated vegetables, followed by the discovery of E. Coli 0157 in beef. Then it was found that some ice-cream products were contaminated with the Listeria bacteria. These incidents, coupled with the cholera cases and the outbreak of bird flu (H5N1) causing chicken-phobia, have posed a serious threat to the food hygiene of the Hong Kong people. One of the functions of the Provisional Urban Council (PUC) is to safeguard public health by controlling the food and environmental hygiene. Should any member of the public suffer from food poisoning after taking virus-contaminated food, the Health Department as well as the Agriculture and Fisheries Department would certainly be held responsible. Yet, the Council cannot stay clear of it. Let me cite the bird flu as an example. There were criticisms that the hygienic
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