Page 110 of 606
Page 110 of 606
1606
132
PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
THE HON. LI WAH-MING (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I would first of all respond to what Hon. Ambrose Cheung said just now. I too will be taking part in the motion debate of the Legislative Council on the 29th this month.
If the wording of the motion was as that proposed by Hon. Ambrose CHEUNG, it would definitely be at variance with our stance. In other words, we would be having different views and speaking on our own needs. Our stance would definitely differ. Unless the motion proposed is so worded as to reflect the unified position reached by the Council, which the Legislative Council will be requested to support, debate and vote on to find out whether it is endorsed or vetoed, otherwise it is no more than 'shooting the breeze', a comment I heard just now.
Secondly, I recall that when Mrs. CHAN, the Deputy Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, came to the Council to listen to our views on 16 June, I said it was like 'Brazil versus Hong Kong' in the World Cup game, indicating that we were bound to lose. Nevertheless, having watched the World Cup Final recently, I discovered that after all, it was not the case. Brazil was not that strong at all and football championship might change like the prices of seafood.
I can see from the Consultation Document on Review of District Organizations that the Government has played some tricks. A lot of Members have talked about its content and I am not going to repeat it here, but I agree with the general comment that for the Consultation Document, the Government mobilized the Area Committees and Mutual Aid Committees under the HAD. To me these committees are no less than the 'children' of the HAD while the district boards are its 'sworn sons'. All they did was to get together at a consultation meeting and then indicate their support for the proposed dissolution of the municipal councils. We were fully aware of the path the Government was going to take, because there had already been some changes in the public views and opinions when the Consultation Document was released. My colleagues in the Democratic Party conducted a survey and found that not the majority were in favour of disbanding the municipal councils. Most of them were in favour of merge, not abolition. The Consultation Document on Review of District Organizations has put forth Options One, Two, Three and Four. Options Two and Three are respectively to abolish the municipal councils and to merge the two municipal councils and the district boards. From the findings of our public survey, we cannot see that these two options are in the main streams. Of course, the Government may say that the majority of the views received are in favour of Options Two and Three. The Government has released consultation documents before but on none of these occasions has it acted so uncouthly and vulgarly as to:
I. rally the support of its own systems; and
Page 110
Page 111