15
For Tiu Keng Leng or Rennie's Mill, for the cottage areas there the residents got ex gratia payments, so why is it that the same cannot be done for the residents in the areas I've mentioned. The residents have been living there happily for long periods of time and now they are asked to move out by the Government. In the beginning they purchased their accommodation. Why is it that no compensation is paid to them? So, Mr Governor, how can you tell these residents that the Hong Kong Government is fair and open?
Governor: The Honourable lady has demonstrated how unwise I was to answer the admiral question from Mr Ho. But just to show how open and fair I am, I will respond briefly to the Honourable lady in a way which I hope is eventually, if not initially helpful. The Honourable lady will know and will, I'm sure, have explained to her constituents, what the long-standing arrangements of the Hong Kong Government are for compensating those who are moved because of the requirements of resettlement policy or for other reasons. Most of my senior secretaries have spent parts of their public service career dealing with resettlement cases in various parts of the territory and will be as familiar as the Honourable lady is with the difficulties involved, not least because people always want more financial compensation than is offered; it's part of the human story.
The particular problems associated with the cottage areas to which the Honourable lady refers have not, I have to confess, alas, been brought to my notice on previous occasions but I will write to the Honourable lady a comprehensive reply on the issue which I hope will satisfy her, and it would be nice if it satisfied those concerned as well but I will leave that to the formidable eloquence of the Honourable lady.
Dr C H Leong: Thank you Mr President. Governor, it would be ungentlemanly and perhaps not the right thing to ask you, are you happy with the Democratic Party and the itemised charges, or are you happy with the Administration, but I'm going to change the subject and I'm going to ask about, to follow up on what Mr Henry Tang has mentioned about elections and the registration of voters.
Mr Tang did mention and you answered rightly that there has been a lot of, perhaps, previous confusion which has been settled in the so-called corporate votes. But even in the older functional constituencies which are concerned with individual voting there are lots of, perhaps, areas which have not been settled and which have produced a lot of problems. I am referring to my own older functional - not the oldest profession - the older professional constituency.