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PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
405
there will be "one council, one department" or "various councils, various departments” in the future, municipal services are still an essential service for the public, which have a direct impact on the quality of their life. Allowing public opinions to be voiced in a policy-making organisation is the greatest asset to the Council for over a century. This liberal democratic system has already been introduced into the Legislative Council and the District Boards. In recent years, there have been many controversies surrounding the Council : the Central Library, scramble for the use of venues at the Victoria Park, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of History and so on. Certainly, these issues should have been avoided if they had come up more than a decade ago. It is because under bureaucratic rule, they should have been resolved even before the public knew about them. In fact, the advantage of the Council is that we can have a heated argument about these issues in the Council and let the public know the whole truth. Finally, we will come to a final decision by casting our votes rationally. Whether Members are coming from different political parties and holding different political views, they will have to perform their duties based on the final resolution and jointly bear the responsibility. The retention of Members' seats in the Council depends very much on whether they have performed their duties to the satisfaction of the public who tend to make their decision by voting.
Different views are allowed to be voiced in the Council. Just as some Members have asserted that a beauty often incurs disasters, I would like to take this opportunity to declare that women are great. When I witnessed my wife was ten months pregnant and gave birth to a son and a daughter one after another, I felt that she was a great woman as she took great pains in doing that. Today, I am attending a meeting here, but she has to look after our two children, aged 2 and 4. I am most grateful to her. At a signature drive to press for a reduction in the price of liquefied petroleum gas last night, half of the voluntary workers were females. They worked for the interests of the community and, therefore, had no time to prepare the meals for their family. I think they are great. Women are great! Those female Councillors are even greater as they have to attend to their public duties as well as to look after their family. Here, I would like to give my compliments to Ms. Christina TING Yuk-chee, Ms. Jennifer Chow Kit-bing, Ms. Carlye Tsui Wai-ling, Ms. Grace Au Yuk-har, Ms. Ada Wong Ying-kay and Miss Annie Wu Suk-ching.
PUC is an organisation which is tolerant of different views and can independently make policy decisions with powers to implement its policies. The question is not who is right or who is wrong. Maybe I am right and you are wrong today and vice versa tomorrow. Different decisions made by various political parties and their representatives will be relayed to the public through the mass media. Under the democratic system, they can express their opinions freely. Therefore, in carrying out a reform of district councils in the new century, under no circumstances should the SAR Government attempt to get rid of the different voices of the people because of unpleasant experience.
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