مایند
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JULY 3, 1969
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▶ngkong. The whole essence of the ombudsman concept is its nexibility. A commissioner's powers and responsibilities can be made as narrow or as sweeping as local conditions demand. The Justice report points out, for example, that an ombudsman can be empowered to start an investigation on his own initiative without waiting for a formal complaint from the public; or that possible abuses may be revealed by newspaper reports or by the ombudsman's own observations on inspection tours.
The Governor warned that the inevitable limitations on the authority of an ombudsman might disappoint or dis- illusion the public. This danger, he argued, did not arise with complaints investigated by UMELCO. Although the Unofficials had no legal powers of investigation, Sir David Trench maintained that "they are not hampered by this and receive all the official co-operation they require.. a matter of courtesy". The Justice report provides a telling rejoinder: "Clearly, the ombudsman, apparently even needed in countries with a strong democratic tradition where legisla- tures are in a position to control the workings of bureaucracy, is needed more urgently where there are no effective means "of control."
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b. Moreover, as a source of redress for public grievances, UMELCO does not seem to operate at all. There may have been occasions on which Unofficials have stood up in Legis- lative Council to argue the case for someone who has suffered injustice at the hands of the administration, but no > seems able to recall any such instances. The most generous ? estimate is that the UMELCO office receives an average of a dozen complaints in writing each month and a further dozen telephone and personal calls from members of the zipublic, a dismally low figure. ! .p
fl The Governor also drew attention during the Budget 'to the work of the City District Officers in dealing with 'complaints. At the moment, the CDOs receive between 50 and 100 complaints a month (of varying degrees of serious- ness) about the Government. This is proof that the public has its grievances and is willing to air them provided the "Government offers effective channels. As the Justice report notes,' the CDOs are expressly barred from acting as any form of ombudsman; they have no powers to investigate the "activities of other government departments; and "their first
loyalty must be to the executive”.
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Would an ombudsman fit in with Chinese concepts of "administration? Dhun Ruttonjee and his committee have "'done some historical homework and relate how the Imperial Censorate was HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS created to investi- gate the perform- ance of officials. A Hongkong ombudsman. would be able to exploit this tradi- tion to create an
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understanding of his role, amongst the community at large. The Justice report also argues that the Super- visory Yuan set up by the Kuo- mintang and the
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FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
Committee of People's Control and Ministry of Supervision. established in the People's Republic point to the acceptability of an ombudsman system in Chinese political life.
One weakness of the Justice report is its failure to spell out in any detail the kind of areas in which the ombudsman might function. The success of the system elsewhere and the obvious political advantages the Government would derive from setting up a "Commissioner to comfort and protect the people" were perhaps sufficient justification in the eyes of Justice for a similar institution in Hongkong. This, ́however, is not the way to win over the Colony's hard- headed administration who require proof that an ombuds- 'man' could contribute to the solution of specific problems.
In general, the Commissioner would move into the "legal "grey zones”, those areas where the law leaves decisions to the discretion of the civil servant. (He would also have 'a useful educational role to play if he concluded, after in- vestigation, a complainant might be able to seek redress in the courts, thus teaching the community its rights.)
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The "grey zones" are fairly extensive in Hongkong. The plight of J. G. Gillow is a case in point. A former member of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, he complained bitterly that he lost his post unjustly. He has alleged in petitions to the Governor and the Crown that his Fold Department suffers from grave defects. The validity of his charges is irrelevant here: more important is the lack any local institution which could be responsible for in- vestigating his case and publishing its findings.
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Again the very valued privilege of resettlement for squatters is not a right but a gift within the discretion of the Resettlement Department. Injustice is often alleged by squatters. Their suspicions would be cleared up if an 'ombudsman existed able to inquire into what the Governor i has himself termed the public service's mistakes and mis- judgments. The issue of passports and other travel docu- ments is a further task in which civil servants come under fire for their decisions without being able to justify their actions through impartial investigation.
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Even if the Unofficials desired to imitate the tradition of British Members of Parliament in seeking redress on behalf of individual citizens, they cannot hope to investigate the way in which the civil servant has used his arbitrary authority unless UMELCO assumes the right to demand all relevant papers and the questioning of officials involved in the case by experienced investigators. Probably, a large proportion of complaints received by an ombudsman would be outside his authority to challenge. The Hongkong public is largely ignorant of its rights and the way in which the Government works and would no doubt deluge his office with grievances for which adequate legal remedies exist already or which stem from a misunderstanding of the administration's powers.
At least this would bring to an rend the present state of affairs in which public complaints however groundless so often remain hidden from the Government and fester into cynical disenchantment with the 1, authorities.
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The real benefit of an ombudsman would flow from the creation of a simple and inexpensive method of providing justice for the citizen who feels wronged by the arbitrary workings of the bureaucracy. The desire for a public means of redress and protection for the individual was the original stimulus to parliamentary democracy in other countries; if Hongkong cannot hope to escape from its colonial status, an ombudsman would not be a bad substitute for constitu- tional reform., i
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