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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

MOTIONS.

(1) MR. HILTON CHEONG-LEEN moved the following Motion:-

"RESOLVED that this Council consider what parts of Phase I of the March 1969 Urban Council Report on the Reform of Local Government should be recommended to the Central Government for immediate and if necessary phased implementation."

He said:

Hr. Chairman, is this a new Motion or is it a continua-

tion of the Motion?

CHAIRMAN:-It is a continuation of the previous one.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:--If anyone wishes to speak I would be very happy to speak last.

CHAIRMAN:-Does anyone wish to speak on this Motion?

MR. SALES: Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that Mr. CHEONG-LEEN with a Hiltonian touch will move that this Motion be referred to the Local Administration Select Committee of which he is Chairman and we are ready to support him here and now provided he spares us from listening to another speech on the subject.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, there will be no speech, only a few remarks.

Mr. Chairman, this Motion first appeared on the Agenda at the May 1971 Meeting of the Urban Council.

At that meeting, Members were given to understand that the subject was under very active consideration by the Colonial Secretariat. We were advised that proposals concerning local government reform would be put before the Executive Council's first meeting in June.

We are now told that such proposals were discussed by the Executive Council and that the matter is now referred back to the Colonial Secretariat, and that it is not known when such proposals will be in turn transmitted to the Urban Council.

The Elected Members, who comprise a minority of ten out of a total of twenty-six Urban Councillors, have no way of knowing how long it will take the Colonial Secretariat to refer any proposals for local government reform to the Urban Council; it may take a few months, or it may take another year; we have no way of telling.

However, all the ten Elected Members, irrespective of whether they are independents or whether they belong to either of the two main

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political organizations, unanimously feel that there is one area in local government reform where the Hong Kong Colonial Government should not be dragging its feet, and that is on the decision to increase the number of elected members from ten to twenty as recommended in Phase I of the Urban Council's March 1969 Report on the Reform of Local Government.

We know that Hong Kong's population is about 4 million. If we should follow the United Kingdom practice of having one elected member for every 100,000 population, then Hong Kong should have 40 elected Councillors. At this stage of the Urban Council's develop- ment it would seem reasonable for the Hong Kong Colonial Govern- ment to be enlightened enough to agree to a modest increase in elected members from 10 to 20, particularly in view of the very lowly status of the Urban Council in the administrative structure and the very limited scope and responsibility of the Council. An increase in the number of elected members in this lowly Council should at least help to create more "bridges of understanding" between the public and the Hong Kong Colonial Government.

I propose therefore to have this particular recommendation of Phase I of the March 1969 Urban Council Report on the Reform of Local Government discussed in detail at a forthcoming meeting of the Local Government Administration Select Committee.

MR. HENRY H. L. Hu:-Mr. Chairman, I would say a few words about this Motion. In the April meeting of this Council I asked the following question "Now this year's Urban Council election is over, could the Chairman inform the Council has the Government any intention to enlarge the franchise for the future election of the Council? Many local people wish to vote but they have no right to do so."

The Chairman, that is your goodself, answered my question in a most simple way "The franchise is one of the many issues surrounding the issue of the Urban Council on which Government's decision is awaited". I understand that in the last three years or so I advocated in public as well as in private that enlarging the franchise of the Urban Council's election is more urgent and important than any other item of the so called reforms. The frustrations engendered from the restricted franchise is not only limited to the Urban Councillors but also to the public at large. There is no harm from Government's point of view if an Urban Councillor was elected by 10,000 votes or half a million votes with the same scope of Urban Council jurisdiction. I wish Government could give immediate con- sideration about the question of franchise. With this remark, Mr. Chairman, I support the Motion.