1974 — Page 158

Urban Council Proceedings 市政局議事錄 All AI Reviewed

Page 158 of 187

276

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

ready for the cultural complex project until another recession is upon us. Whilst it is accepted that a cultural complex is not vital to our chances of economic survival, we must at the same time avoid getting unduly panicky.

I propose that the time has now come for a joint working party comprising the Hong Kong Government and the Urban Council to be set up to examine the financial planning for the cultural complex project. We should examine the various options of financing open to us for the project. We should also review the architectural plans in the light of financial realities. But above all, we must keep the project alive. As far as the Urban Council is concerned, I suggest that there is a need for a project task force here whose job it is to sustain the initiative in this very large capital project which by itself alone is almost two-thirds the size of the total budget in one year for the Urban Council. What is ahead of us will not be an easy battle. Indeed, it will most probably be a series of difficult battles but it is a battle which the Hong Kong public expects the Urban Council to fight.

Indeed, one has only to look at the way City Hall is now being used by the Hong Kong public to convince oneself of the very real need for a cultural complex. Before the City Hall was built there was never a short supply of critics who suggested that the City Hall was going to be a white elephant, built just to appease our sentiments. Well, almost since the day when it was opened the City Hall has been fully used in every conceivable way by the Hong Kong public. In a way we have been suffering from our success in that City Hall facilities have now to be very strictly rationed out to the public for its use. This is most unsatisfactory. If we cannot provide the basic facilities for cultural development to take place spontaneously, we have an immediate obligation to do so because this is the very minimum that the authorities should do. The cultural complex will provide these much needed facilities. The cultural complex is not just a glamour project as cynical critics have suggested. Instead it is a project which will provide the much needed basic facilities in any big city for its cultural development to take place. If the construction of such facilities has the side effect of elevating the status of the city, I suggest that this is a bonus which we should not sneer at.

I propose now to turn to the other subject which has been occupying my mind. This is the question of law and order in our society. Over the past year, very considerable efforts have been made by the authorities to improve our state of law and order. Let it be said straight away that such efforts should not go unacknowledged. But the

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

277

sad fact remains that the current state of law and order in our society is still far from satisfactory. Indeed, putting it bluntly, crimes of violence have continued to increase despite all the valiant efforts. With the exception of certain exclusive areas, our ordinary citizens are leading a life with the threat of robbery and homicide hanging over their neck. This has led the public to ask the question: what other ideas have the authorities got now? Though there have been welcomed signs of change, it is still widely held that the punishment for such crimes of violence is not drastic enough to have the necessary deterrent effect. Indeed, it has been said that our system of law tends to protect the young thugs far more than its ordinary law-abiding citizens. In my opinion we have now given as good a try as we possibly can to all the conventional methods and it is now time to think of the deteriorating state of law and order in terms of an emergency problem. We should go beyond our conventional methods and deal with the problem by employing emergency methods. Such a situation calls to mind the situation Hong Kong had to face in the 1950's when organized triad influence was predominant. At that time the authorities recognized that the threat posed by triads had to be tackled as an emergency problem and gave the law enforcement authorities sweeping powers to deal with them. Well, over a relatively short period organized triads were effectively dealt with. My question is: why couldn't the law enforcement authorities be given the same sort of powers in dealing with young thugs? Admittedly such powers go beyond the conventional powers that the legislature in any democratic society is prepared to give to its enforcement agencies. But then, the alternative is for the young thugs to hold society at ransom and they have been doing this for a period which is long enough. The menace brought about by these young thugs is now destroying the very fabric of law and order based on which society could grow. Indeed one of the very first duties of any Government is to provide the basic law and order to its citizenry. Yet in this respect the authorities seem to have failed.

I propose that the time has now come for robberies to be taken out of the list of ordinary crimes and should be dealt with on a basis similar to that on which triads were dealt with. By this I mean that thugs, irrespective of their age, who have committed robberies twice should be put in a position in which they would be subjected to the same type of strict control by the police as convicted triad members are. They should be deprived of their civil rights for at least a period of time during which the menace caused by them to society could be eliminated. This, of course, is a very drastic measure but we have been forced into this situation by the big increase in crimes of violence over the years. The survival of the society is at stake. The old argu-

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Page 158 of 187 276 HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL ready for the cultural complex project until another recession is upon us. Whilst it is accepted that a cultural complex is not vital to our chances of economic survival, we must at the same time avoid getting unduly panicky. I propose that the time has now come for a joint working party comprising the Hong Kong Government and the Urban Council to be set up to examine the financial planning for the cultural complex project. We should examine the various options of financing open to us for the project. We should also review the architectural plans in the light of financial realities. But above all, we must keep the project alive. As far as the Urban Council is concerned, I suggest that there is a need for a project task force here whose job it is to sustain the initiative in this very large capital project which by itself alone is almost two-thirds the size of the total budget in one year for the Urban Council. What is ahead of us will not be an easy battle. Indeed, it will most probably be a series of difficult battles but it is a battle which the Hong Kong public expects the Urban Council to fight. Indeed, one has only to look at the way City Hall is now being used by the Hong Kong public to convince oneself of the very real need for a cultural complex. Before the City Hall was built there was never a short supply of critics who suggested that the City Hall was going to be a white elephant, built just to appease our sentiments. Well, almost since the day when it was opened the City Hall has been fully used in every conceivable way by the Hong Kong public. In a way we have been suffering from our success in that City Hall facilities have now to be very strictly rationed out to the public for its use. This is most unsatisfactory. If we cannot provide the basic facilities for cultural development to take place spontaneously, we have an immediate obligation to do so because this is the very minimum that the authorities should do. The cultural complex will provide these much needed facilities. The cultural complex is not just a glamour project as cynical critics have suggested. Instead it is a project which will provide the much needed basic facilities in any big city for its cultural development to take place. If the construction of such facilities has the side effect of elevating the status of the city, I suggest that this is a bonus which we should not sneer at. I propose now to turn to the other subject which has been occupying my mind. This is the question of law and order in our society. Over the past year, very considerable efforts have been made by the authorities to improve our state of law and order. Let it be said straight away that such efforts should not go unacknowledged. But the HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL 277 sad fact remains that the current state of law and order in our society is still far from satisfactory. Indeed, putting it bluntly, crimes of violence have continued to increase despite all the valiant efforts. With the exception of certain exclusive areas, our ordinary citizens are leading a life with the threat of robbery and homicide hanging over their neck. This has led the public to ask the question: what other ideas have the authorities got now? Though there have been welcomed signs of change, it is still widely held that the punishment for such crimes of violence is not drastic enough to have the necessary deterrent effect. Indeed, it has been said that our system of law tends to protect the young thugs far more than its ordinary law-abiding citizens. In my opinion we have now given as good a try as we possibly can to all the conventional methods and it is now time to think of the deteriorating state of law and order in terms of an emergency problem. We should go beyond our conventional methods and deal with the problem by employing emergency methods. Such a situation calls to mind the situation Hong Kong had to face in the 1950's when organized triad influence was predominant. At that time the authorities recognized that the threat posed by triads had to be tackled as an emergency problem and gave the law enforcement authorities sweeping powers to deal with them. Well, over a relatively short period organized triads were effectively dealt with. My question is: why couldn't the law enforcement authorities be given the same sort of powers in dealing with young thugs? Admittedly such powers go beyond the conventional powers that the legislature in any democratic society is prepared to give to its enforcement agencies. But then, the alternative is for the young thugs to hold society at ransom and they have been doing this for a period which is long enough. The menace brought about by these young thugs is now destroying the very fabric of law and order based on which society could grow. Indeed one of the very first duties of any Government is to provide the basic law and order to its citizenry. Yet in this respect the authorities seem to have failed. I propose that the time has now come for robberies to be taken out of the list of ordinary crimes and should be dealt with on a basis similar to that on which triads were dealt with. By this I mean that thugs, irrespective of their age, who have committed robberies twice should be put in a position in which they would be subjected to the same type of strict control by the police as convicted triad members are. They should be deprived of their civil rights for at least a period of time during which the menace caused by them to society could be eliminated. This, of course, is a very drastic measure but we have been forced into this situation by the big increase in crimes of violence over the years. The survival of the society is at stake. The old argu- Page 159 of 187 278 ... (this line is not present in the original text, it is an error) Correcting to: no change, as there is no text to correct after "The old argu-". ... was removed and the page numbers were kept as is. The rest of the text was reformatted into HTML using tags.

Baseline (Original)

Page 158 of 187 276 HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL ready for the cultural complex project until another recession is upon us. Whilst it is accepted that a cultural complex is not vital to our chances of economic survival, we must at the same time avoid getting unduly panicky. I propose that the time has now come for a joint working party comprising the Hong Kong Government and the Urban Council to be set up to examine the financial planning for the cultural complex proj- ect. We should examine the various options of financing open to us for the project. We should also review the architectural plans in the light of financial realities. But above all, we must keep the project alive. As far as the Urban Council is concerned, I suggest that there is a need for a project task force here whose job it is to sustain the initiative in this very large capital project which by itself alone is almost two-thirds the size of the total budget in one year for the Urban Council. What is ahead of us will not be an easy battle. Indeed, it will most probably be a series of difficult battles but it is a battle which the Hong Kong public expects the Urban Council to fight. Indeed, one has only to look at the way City Hall is now being used by the Hong Kong public to convince oneself of the very real need for a cultural complex. Before the City Hali was built there was never a short supply of critics who suggested that the City Hall was going to be a white element, built just to appease our sentiments. Well, almost since the day when it was opened the City Hall has been fully used in every conceivable way by the Hong Kong public. In a way we have been suffering from our success in that City Hall facilities have now to be very strictly rationed out to the public for its use. This is most unsatisfactory. If we cannot provide the basic facilities for cultural development to take place spontaneously, we have an imme- diate obligation to do so because this is the very minimum that the authorities should do. The cultural complex will provide these much needed facilities. The cultural complex is not just a glamour project as cynical critics have suggested. Instead it is a project which will provide the much needed basic facilities in any big city for its cultural development to take place. If the construction of such facilities has the side effect of elevating the status of the city, I suggest that this is a bonus which we should not sneer at. I propose now to turn to the other subject which has been occupy- ing my mind. This is the question of law and order in our society. Over the past year, very considerable efforts have been made by the authorities to improve our state of law and order. Let it be said straight-way that such efforts should not go unacknowledged. But the HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL 277 sad fact remains that the current state of law and order in our society is still far from satisfactory. Indeed, putting it bluntly, crimes of violence have continued to increase despite all the valiant efforts. With the exception of certain exclusive areas, our ordinary citizens are leading a life with the threat of robbery and homicide hanging over their neck. This has led the public to ask the question: what other ideas have the authorities got now? Though there have been welcomed signs of change, it is still widely held that the punishment for such crimes of violence is not drastic enough to have the necessary deterrent effect. Indeed, it has been said that our system of law tends to protect the young thugs far more than its ordinary law-abiding citizens. In my opinion we have now given as good a try as we possibly can to all the conventional methods and it is now time to think of the deteriorat- ing state of law and order in terms of an emergency problem. We should go beyond our conventional methods and deal with the problem Such a situation calls to mind the by employing emergency methods. situation Hong Kong had to face in the 1950's when organized triad influence was predominant. At that time the authorities recognized that the treat posed by triads had to be tackled as an emergency prob- lem and gave the law enforcement authorities sweeping powers to deal with them. Well, over a relatively short period organized triads were effectively dealt with. My question is: why couldn't the law enforcement authorities be given the same sort of powers in dealing with young thugs? Admittedly such powers go beyond the conven- tional powers that the legislature in any democratic society is prepared to give to its enforcement agencies. But then, the alternative is for the young thugs to hold society at random and they have been doing this for a period which is long enough. The menace brought about by these young thugs is now destroying the very fabric of law and order based on which society could grow. Indeed one of the very first duties of any Government is to provide the basic law and order to its citi- zenry. Yet in this respect the authorities seem to have failed. I propose that the time has now come for robberies to be taken out of the list of ordinary crimes and should be dealt with on a basis similar to that on which triads were dealt with. By this I mean that thugs, irrespective of their age, who have committed robberies twice should be put in a position in which they would be subjected to the same type of strict control by the police as convicted triad members are. They should be deprived of their civil rights for at least a period of time during which the menace caused by them to society could be eliminated. This, of course, is a very drastic measure but we have been forced into this situation by the big increase in crimes of violence over the years. The survival of the society is at stake. The old argu-

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Page 158 of 187

276

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

I propose that the time has now come for a joint working party comprising the Hong Kong Government and the Urban Council to be set up to examine the financial planning for the cultural complex proj- ect. We should examine the various options of financing open to us for the project. We should also review the architectural plans in the light of financial realities. But above all, we must keep the project alive. As far as the Urban Council is concerned, I suggest that there is a need for a project task force here whose job it is to sustain the initiative in this very large capital project which by itself alone is almost two-thirds the size of the total budget in one year for the Urban Council. What is ahead of us will not be an easy battle. Indeed, it will most probably be a series of difficult battles but it is a battle which the Hong Kong public expects the Urban Council to fight.

Indeed, one has only to look at the way City Hall is now being used by the Hong Kong public to convince oneself of the very real need for a cultural complex. Before the City Hali was built there was never a short supply of critics who suggested that the City Hall was going to be a white element, built just to appease our sentiments. Well, almost since the day when it was opened the City Hall has been fully used in every conceivable way by the Hong Kong public. In a way we have been suffering from our success in that City Hall facilities have now to be very strictly rationed out to the public for its use. This is most unsatisfactory. If we cannot provide the basic facilities for cultural development to take place spontaneously, we have an imme- diate obligation to do so because this is the very minimum that the authorities should do. The cultural complex will provide these much needed facilities. The cultural complex is not just a glamour project as cynical critics have suggested. Instead it is a project which will provide the much needed basic facilities in any big city for its cultural development to take place. If the construction of such facilities has the side effect of elevating the status of the city, I suggest that this is a bonus which we should not sneer at.

I propose now to turn to the other subject which has been occupy- ing my mind. This is the question of law and order in our society. Over the past year, very considerable efforts have been made by the authorities to improve our state of law and order. Let it be said straight-way that such efforts should not go unacknowledged. But the

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

277

sad fact remains that the current state of law and order in our society is still far from satisfactory. Indeed, putting it bluntly, crimes of violence have continued to increase despite all the valiant efforts. With the exception of certain exclusive areas, our ordinary citizens are leading a life with the threat of robbery and homicide hanging over their neck. This has led the public to ask the question: what other ideas have the authorities got now? Though there have been welcomed signs of change, it is still widely held that the punishment for such crimes of violence is not drastic enough to have the necessary deterrent effect. Indeed, it has been said that our system of law tends to protect the young thugs far more than its ordinary law-abiding citizens. In my opinion we have now given as good a try as we possibly can to all the conventional methods and it is now time to think of the deteriorat- ing state of law and order in terms of an emergency problem. We should go beyond our conventional methods and deal with the problem Such a situation calls to mind the by employing emergency methods. situation Hong Kong had to face in the 1950's when organized triad influence was predominant. At that time the authorities recognized that the treat posed by triads had to be tackled as an emergency prob- lem and gave the law enforcement authorities sweeping powers to deal with them. Well, over a relatively short period organized triads were effectively dealt with. My question is: why couldn't the law enforcement authorities be given the same sort of powers in dealing with young thugs? Admittedly such powers go beyond the conven- tional powers that the legislature in any democratic society is prepared to give to its enforcement agencies. But then, the alternative is for the young thugs to hold society at random and they have been doing this for a period which is long enough. The menace brought about by these young thugs is now destroying the very fabric of law and order based on which society could grow. Indeed one of the very first duties of any Government is to provide the basic law and order to its citi- zenry. Yet in this respect the authorities seem to have failed.

1974 — Page 158

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