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The Governor's "Letter to Hong Kong"

Following is the full text of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's broadcast on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong:

Holidays! Sunshine. Travel. Trekking. Sea and swimming pools. Visiting parents. Time with the kids. More photos for the album or the bottom drawer. Holidays, anyway, for some for the lucky ones.

All of us who are going away should say a big "thank you" to those who are staying behind and making it possible for the rest of us to put our feet up for a bit.

It should be holiday time for our legislators, among others. But some of them, as soon as their work ended last week, rolled up their sleeves and headed for the campaign trail for the next elections in September. Actually, they deserve a break.

They've just finished a historic four years of work. Why historic? Well, firstly, because this has been the first Legislative Council in Hong Kong the majority of whose members were democratically elected. And the next will be the first completely elected. More than that, during their term they've seen not just the continued successful development of Hong Kong, but in many respects its irreversible transformation. The way we run our affairs has started to catch up with the sort of people we've become. Better educated. Better travelled. Better off. It's not a question of politics being imposed on Hong Kong. What has happened here is what happens, sooner or later, wherever there's economic development and social progress. And here we've taken it all, peacefully and calmly and pretty good naturedly, in our stride. So what's the surprise? Trust the people of Hong Kong, and you won't go far

wrong.

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In four years, the last Legislative Council passed 393 Bills on everything from human rights to banking regulation. It held 174 motion debates and asked the Government over 2,000 questions. It allowed the community to let off steam and told people what was going on on their behalf. It asked questions, looked behind the filing cabinets, held the Government to account. It sometimes made life let's be frank - more difficult for all of us in the Administration. Our excellent civil servants had to work even harder. Many of them showed just how good they are at defending their corner. But I don't believe that more questions mean worse government. If you know that you'll have to explain publicly what you're doing, you usually take greater care to get it right. More accountable government is better government, nine times out of 10.