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PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
representative of the public, we are strongly accountable to the public. We can fully grasp the social climate, the aspirations and the needs of the public, which the bureaucrats cannot understand. I, therefore, strongly urge the Hong Kong Government to consider the proposal of 'One Council, One Department', so as to maintain the development of democratic politics in Hong Kong.
With these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. WONG KWOK-HING (in Cantonese):—On 7 December 1998, that is 35 days ago, a hawker burnt himself in protest in a courtroom and died of serious injury eventually. This is the first-ever tragedy of its kind in Hong Kong. On the day following the death of this elderly hawker, Mr. WONG Tai-fook, some street trader organizations petitioned outside the North Kowloon Magistracy where the tragedy had occurred, protesting against the ossified judiciary's disregard of the hawkers' right of living. The matter has aroused much public concern.
In fact, WONG's tragedy only reflects the tip of the iceberg as discontent has been growing among the numerous lower-class citizens who live on hawking. The death of WONG will be of great value only if it can be seen as a warning by the SAR Government and Municipal Councils, impelling them to conduct a comprehensive review of policies on employment, industry, population and hawkers as well as the associated hawking problems, and to formulate a sound hawker policy.
After the tragedy, the judiciary acceded to the request of WONG's family on compassionate grounds and returned the confiscations of some 200 pieces of jades for burying with him. The Markets and Street Traders Select Committee of the Provisional Urban Council also amended the relevant By-laws in an exceptionally short period of 2 weeks to enable the magistrates to exercise their discretion on the quantity of commodities of the illegal hawkers to be forfeited. In addition, another decision at the same meeting “not to fix a commencement date for the new Amendment Bylaw” in essence means that there will be no deadline for the Itinerant Hawker Licence (IHL) Compulsory Deletion Policy (deletion policy)". However, at the SCWC meeting on 5.1.99, while the above decision was carried by a vote of 33 to 5, it was also endorsed by a vote of 24 to 12 that the Working Group on IHL be tasked to study the implementation of the deletion policy and submit a report within 3 months. In other words, a decision that amounts to cancelling IHLs by way of natural attrition cannot be put into effect. The voting results show that Urban Councillors are wavering, being indecisive as to whether the IHLs should be cancelled through across-the-board deletion or natural attrition.
As an elected Urban Councillor, I feel deep regret for WONG's tragic death; I am also very discontent with the fact that the relevant authority has not given serious thought to the matter so far. To avoid recurrence of similar social tragedies and further aggravation of contradictions, especially to prevent an
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