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policies imply but which is so difficult to express when large undertakings are carried out by a highly centralised authority.
111.
We have of course had our critics and
here I am concerned more with criticisms of
the concepts rather than of individual perfor-
mance. One has been that the activities of the
C.D.O. are so diverse that it is difficult to
understand the precise nature of his function. The main objective is clear enough: it is to make the Government more intelligible and more human
and to enable the Government to have a better
understanding of the wishes and aspirations of ordinary people. The diversity of activity springs from the various ways C.D.O.s are trying to identify themselves with the community in which they work. The aim of involvement in community activity is to make contact but a half hearted involvement simply intended to get introductions would not generate the trust and respect which the achievement of the primary aim requires.
C.D.O.s have therefore
thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the lives of all parts of their communities. Hong Kong life is so full of variety that C.D.0.s must devise an equal variety of approaches if they are to succeed in their primary aim.
112.
A second criticism is that C.D.O.s
are not ombudsmen that is they are not investigators with power to set things right. This they have never set out to be but they are one channel through which complaints and suggestions can be made. The picture that some people paint of the Government as an inhuman machine which would react only to inquisitors
armed with statutory powers is a strange one to
/arrive
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