XN000022-1996-10-03 — Page 38

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A question, I think the

Question (in Chinese): Good morning Mr Governor. legislature should straddle 1997. That was the situation before the arrival of Mr Governor. But now, after you've come here the situation has changed and they will have to get off the train, there will be a provisional legislature and you're saying that there shouldn't be such a legislature. But they are taking over. So why is it that they can't set up the provisional legislature? Is it that they will have to wait until June 30, 1997? That's what I wish to say.

Governor: Well, I would have liked the legislature to travel through 1997, but alas the arrangements that we tried to negotiate with Chinese officials in 1992/93 to accomplish that objective were in vain, despite the fact that we worked at it for well over 150 hours. I've never doubted at all that on June 30, 1997, even if we'd had an agreement for a through train for the legislature, legislators would of had to have past some sort of objective test in order to continue in their job. They'd have had to do something like take an oath to the Basic Law and the Special Administrative Region. There would have had to have been some mark of the change of sovereignty. I've never doubted that for one instant.

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As for the question of the provisional legislature. There's no mention of a provisional legislature in the Basic Law or in the Joint Declaration. Quite how a provisional legislature is in line with those documents, it's for Chinese leaders I think themselves to explain. What is absolutely clear is there is no basis for a provisional legislature whatsoever before June 30, 1997, and I wish there wasn't going to be one afterwards as well.

Question: Good morning Mr Patten, my name is James. I just want to ask two issues. One is how can you make sure and what you will do in the coming nine months to ensure a clean and efficient government going through 1997? And the other thing is, I reckon from the report that some of the objectives about the social welfare cannot be achieved and do you think it is because of your inefficiency, the problem, or because of some other problem?

Governor: First of all we do at the moment have a clean and pretty efficient government, I think, in Hong Kong. We have tried to keep ourselves clean which is why we have been such enthusiastic supporters for the work of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. We have also tried to make ourselves more efficient by becoming more accountable and I want to pay a tribute to the extent to which our civil service, unlike perhaps some elsewhere in the world. has been prepared to own up to the things we have got wrong as well as try to take credit for the things we have got right.