TNAG-0003-FCO40-39-Commission-of-Enquiry-into-the-Kowloon-disturbances-addition-1968 — Page 148

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PART VI CONCLUSIONS

and of much of the administration is not understood by the bulk of the population; and (b) the centralization, both physical and organizational, of the Government which has been conducive in the past to efficiency and economy in the provision of services but which has tended to create an image of detachment from the actual problems of the man in the street. But again we believe that few would welcome the complete reversal of the present approach in the interest of bringing the Government closer to the people without any guarantee that this would have a marked beneficial effect on general attitudes.

471. Nevertheless, questions such as these must be of importance to the future development of Hong Kong because unless the public has an adequate under- standing and appreciation of Government's action, its policies and problems, much of our future social and economic progress could be prejudiced.

472. Before commenting on measures which might be adopted we took par- ticular note of the following views expressed to us:

(a) that the Government's record has been outstanding in many fields and it would be a mistake to equate the vague public dissatisfaction expressed in these statements with the solid facts of the Government's achievements; indeed, one of the more disturbing and important features of this Inquiry has been the disclosure of how little is known of those achievements amongst wider sections of the population, and the readiness of members of the public to accept statements about Government's disinterest in their welfare and well being; we were told that in the absence of positive evidence that Government is concerned about them many may well not believe in its goodwill; and

(b) that much of the reported dissatisfaction arises from inertia in the popula- tion and an unwillingness to believe that administrative knots can be untied or legal rights obtained other than through influence or even bribery; often people are unaware of existing channels of communication or hesitate to use them.

473. It must also be remembered that the original evidence of dissatisfaction came largely from people who have taken the trouble to contact a welfare agency or a Councillor to right a genuine or imagined wrong and may therefore be quite untypical of the general population which is probably appreciative of the com- parative security, freedom and stability they have enjoyed in Hong Kong. Moreover just as ill-founded rumour played a strong part in moulding public attitudes during the disturbances, as evidenced by the stories of unjustified police arrests, of plots and targets, it is probable that some of the dissatisfaction can be attributed to a false impression that the Government does not care. As an example of the response to the belief that Government does care, mention was made of the ready co- operation with authority and its enhanced reputation which followed its efforts to meet the 1963 water crisis.

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