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very little for Hong Kong. If Britain cannot look after Hong Kong's interest, the only alternative is that Hong Kong should look after itself.
I would strongly criticize the Government's Policy on land sale. The economic boom of a society would eventually go to land value as the last phenomenon. It is the fruit of labour and sweat of Hong Kong people. It is quite all right if Government selling the land then the proceeds would be used for the benefit of the community. But that is not the case here. Government sold the land and then remit the money to U.K. when the boom of Hong Kong is prevailing. It is tantamount to squeeze the local people and to cut down the proper development of our society; for example Government has recently announced that the plan of setting up the four technical colleges in Cheung Sha Wan, San Po Kong, Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong would be scrapped off, leaving our younger generation without sufficient technical or industrial training. We were told that Government is afraid of the amount of expenses involved; it is a very short-sighted policy indeed. I really do not understand that on the one hand Government consider the youth problem is very important yet on the other hand Government refuse to have full development of our technical education which in my view is one of many basic ways to solve our youth problem. I would therefore ask Government to use the proceeds of the selling of land to develop Hong Kong's technical education. We have indeed enjoyed the full evil of being a Colony but no benefit of remaining to be so.
I have also repeatedly urged the Government to look after the interest of local small-size or medium-size industries, so far Government is very cool to it. His Excellency the Governor has said in his Budget Speech this year that "The final figures for 1969 were nearly 25% above those of 1968, and this momentum has been maintained; the latest available figures showing a 22.6% increase over those for the same period last year." We are gratifying to learn the increase of our export figures but we must realize that the community of Hong Kong cannot get the whole benefit of this increase of the export because big enterprises of foreign land have established their factories here, they import the raw material to Hong Kong and utilize Hong Kong's labour and facilities, then re-export the products to their own factories abroad. So the figure may be a big one yet Hong Kong does not get the full benefit out of the figure. But on the other hand the local factories in Hong Kong would suffer because of the Government's generosity to those big enterprises from foreign land under the free-trade policy. I am not intending to criticize the Government in this respect, but I would emphasize that certain measures must be taken to assist the local industries to counter-balance the effect caused to them by foreign big enterprises. The unreasonable increase of electricity fare both for industrial and for domestic consumption is another area which government must look into. We had an Inquiry Board to the Electric Companies over 10 years ago. We may need another inquiry.
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ment must look into. We had an Inquiry Board to the Electric Companies over 10 years ago. We may need another inquiry.
Ombudsman
The next topic which I would talk is about the Ombudsman. In Hong Kong because of the language-gap and possibly of the other factors, there are many people in Hong Kong who have grievances in one way or another, yet they have nowhere to complain. It is a good start that in November 1965 we have a Ward system and any citizen can voice their complaints to the Ward members. Two years later, i.e. in 1967, Government has established the C.D.O. system, which although in competing with the Ward system, yet both are working well for the good of people. Then comes the idea of ombudsman which can take various forms, for example the C.D.O., the Ward system and the UMELCO are all performing certain functions of ombudsman. In my view, we should have an Ombudsman with two layers. The first layer should be the combined office of the Ward office and C.D.O., with Ward members being the titular head and the C.D.O. officers to be responsible for office administration. In the Ward offices we have no proper staff, yet in C.D.O. they lack teeth to tackle the problems. In my experience 90% of all the complaints can be solved in the first layer and it is only about 10% of the complaints which either are too serious or too complicated for the Ward office or the C.D.O. to solve, then those 10% complaints should refer to the second layer of the Ombudsman system. Ever since the establishment of the UMELCO office, it would be reasonable to suggest that the second layer of the Ombudsman in Hong Kong should be the UMELCO office at least for the time being. On the other hand, the UMELCO office should concentrate to deal with the complaints referred to them either by C.D.O. office or by the Ward members, because they are more serious ones. The collective responsibility of UMELCO office may have its merits in dealing with complaints.
Anti-Corruption
While I have no doubt about the Government's good intention to wipe out the evil of corruption with the introduction of Prevention of Bribery Bill, 1970 I am not happy about it. I am afraid that eventually it would cause more harm than good, because Government did not take into consideration the fundamental feature of Hong Kong; firstly Hong
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Page 148 of 241
276
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very little for Hong Kong. If Britain cannot look after Hong Kong's interest, the only alternative is that Hong Kong should look after itself.
I would strongly criticize the Government's Policy on land sale. The economic boom of a society would eventually go to land value as the last phenomenon. It is the fruit of labour and sweat of Hong Kong people. It is quite all right if Government selling the land then the proceeds would be used for the benefit of the community. But that is not the case here. Government sold the land and then remit the money to U.K. when the boom of Hong Kong is prevailing. It is tentamount to squeeze the local people and to cut down the proper development of our society: for example Government has recently announced that the plan of setting up the four technical colleges in Cheung Sha Wan, San Po Kong, Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong would be scrapped off, leaving our younger generation without sufficient technical or industrial training. We were told that Government is afraid of the amount of expenses involved; it is a very short-sighted policy indeed. I really do not understand that on the one hand Government consider the youth problem is very important yet on the other hand Government refuse to have full development of our technical education which in my view is one of many basic ways to solve our youth problem. I would therefore ask Government to use the proceeds of the selling of land to develop Hong Kong's technical education. We have indeed enjoyed the full evil of being a Colony but no benefit of remaining to be so.
I have also repeatedly urged the Government to look after the interest of local small-size or medium-size industries, so far Government is very cool it. His Excellency the Governor has said in his Budget Speech this year that "The final figures for 1969 were nearly 25% above those of 1968, and this momentum has been maintained; the latest available figures showing a 22.6% increase over those for the same period last year." We are gratifying to learn the increase of our export figures but we must realize that the community of Hong Kong cannot get the whole benefit of this increase of the export because big enterprises of foreign land have established their factories here, they import the raw material to Hong Kong and utilize Hong Kong's labour and facilities, then re-export the products to their own factories abroad. So the figure may be a big one yet Hong Kong does not get the full benefit out of the figure. But on the other hand the local factories in Hong Kong would suffer because of the Government's generosity to those big enterprises from foreign land under the free-trade policy. I am not intending to criticize the Government in this respect, but I would emphasize that certain measures must be taken to assist the local industries to counter-balance the effect caused to them by foreign big enterprises. The unreasonable increase of electricity fare both for industrial and for domestic consumption is another area which govern-
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
277
ment must look into. We had an Inquiry Board to the Electric Companies over 10 years ago. We may need another inquiry.
Ombudsman
The next topic which I would talk is about the Ombudsman. In Hong Kong because of the language-gap and possibly of the other fac- tors, there are many people in Hong Kong who have grievances in one way or another, yet they have nowhere to complain. It is a good start that in November 1965 we have a Ward system and any citizen can voice their complaints to the Ward members. Two years later, i.e. in 1967, Government has established the C.D.O. system, which although in competing with the Ward system, yet both are working well for the good of people. Then comes the idea of ombudsman which can take various forms, for example the C.D.O., the Ward system and the UMELCO are all performing certain functions of ombudsman. In my view, we should have an Ombudsman with two layers. The first layer should be the combined office of the Ward office and C.D.O., with Ward members being the titular head and the C.D.O. officers to be responsible for office administration. In the Ward offices we have no proper staff, yet in C.D.O. they lack teeth to tackle the problems. In my experience 90% of all the complaints can be solved in the first layer and it is only about 10% of the complaints which either are too serious or too complicated for the Ward office or the C.D.O. to solve, then those 10% complaints should refer to the second layer of the Ombudsman system. Ever since the establishment of the UMELCO office, it would be reasonable to suggest that the second layer of the Ombudsman in Hong Kong should be the UMELCO office at least for the time being. On the other hand, the UMELCO office should concentrate to deal with the complaints referred to them either by C.D.O. office or by the Ward members, because they are more serious ones. The collective responsibility of UMELCO office may have its merits in dealing with complaints.
Anti-Corruption
While I have no doubt about the Government's good intention to wipe out the evil of corruption with the introduction of Prevention of Bribery Bill, 1970 I am not happy about it. I am afraid that eventually it would cause more harm than good, because Government did not take into consideration the fundamental feature of Hong Kong; firstly Hong
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