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tions with swimming pools, libraries, playing fields and cultural services on the same scale as the Hong Kong-Kowloon urban area. (There are, for instance, 7 swimming pool complexes and 7 public libraries now administered by the Council compared with only 1 of each to service the whole of the New Territories.) The situation is no longer sensible; the excuses for inaction are no longer appropriate.
The Heung Yee Kuk has declared that, "The three districts of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories are geographically and politically one and indivisible". Residents of the New Territories pay rates and taxes, they vote in Urban Council elections.
On Government's part, the Chief Secretary has also stated that with "the high degree of integration of the New Territories into the economic and social life of Hong Kong, a unified administration is more important now than in the past". We are all agreed, then! There can be no real reason for dalliance or dissertion and, therefore, I suggest:-
(i) that the jurisdiction of the Urban Council should be extended, immediately, to all areas serviced by its executive arm, the Urban Services Department, and
(ii) that plans should be made to create a Greater Hong Kong Council, with representation thereon from District Councils drawn from the N.T. conurbations.
It is up to the Council to formulate its views in relation to future Urban Council Development on these or other suitable lines; and to seek a dialogue with Government to reach sensible conclusions.
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
Let me turn now to some aspects of Government administration, with initial reference to a problem on which I have already commented in this and previous Debates-Government communication.
Communication
In recent weeks we have witnessed a remarkable break-down in contact between the Legislative Council and important areas of society and this despite Government's avowed promotion of more “Open Government" and closer contact with the people.
We have seen the collapse of the ill-conceived Post Office Bill, at second reading, in the face of strong opposition in public meeting. Last month, also, representative of 300 organization of all shades of Chinese opinion, met in the City Hall to reject certain Sections of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. This argument remains to be resolved.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
141
It is significant that no single member of our Legislative or Executive Councils thought it necessary, or desirable, to obtain first-hand impressions of community opinion by participating in either of these important public debates.
The community has also been placed in dilemma by Government's determination to enforce new Labour Legislation, on the one hand, and the equally compelling argument of industry that Government proposals are impracticable in their present form-particularly in small industry which still remains the back-bone of our economy.
All of this points to a pre-occupation of Government with its administrative processes, and the failure of the Legislative Council to identity and relate to community opinion. Indeed, one distinguished Queen's Counsel has referred in these current debates to the "Failure of communication between the business community, which is the heart of Hong Kong, and the policy-makers who often find themselves shut off, or even cut off, from the real daily life of the Colony”.
And why should this be?
Legislative Council
In its stated endeavour to make the Legislative Council "more representative of the people", a few new faces have been introduced. Unfortunately, the nett effect of this exercise has been to create confusion and an impression of "random selection" which has brought little sense of representation to the community. Some curious anomalies have arisen in the relative strengths of vested interests on our Legislative body; certain seats of power have been notably reinforced.
For more than 100 years Hong Kong enjoyed some system of indirect election to the Legislative Council through the nomination of representatives from the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce and the Justices of the Peace. Such nominees were, in fact, spokesmen for important areas of community opinion, drawing upon such advice, and accountable for their words and actions in the ultimate analysis. This essential quality of "accountability" is now lacking under present arrangements; I cannot judge this to be progress.
The substitution of an inadequate process of indirect election by one of random selection has created new problems and solved none. There must be strong reservations about any system of direct election to Legislative Council. However, the non-representative, non-accountable and remote nature of the Legislative Council at the present time leads one to the conclusion that it should be re-structured and re-
Page 87 of 135
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
tions with swimming pools, libraries, playing fields and cultural services on the same scale as the Hong Kong-Kowloon urban area. (There are, for instance, 7 swimming pool complexes and 7 public libraries now administered by the Council compared with only 1 of each to service the whole of the New Territories.) The situation is no longer sensible; the excuses for inaction are no longer appropriate.
The Heung Yee Kuk has declared that, "The three districts of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories are geographically and politically one and indivisible". Residents of the New Territories pay rates and taxes, they vote in Urban Council elections.
On Government's part, the Chief Secretary has also stated that with "the high degree of integration of the New Territories into the economic and social life of Hong Kong, a unified administration is more important now than in the past". We are all agreed, then! There can be no real reason for dalliance or dissertion and, therefore, I suggest:-
(i) that the jurisdiction of the Urban Council should be extended, immediately, to all areas serviced by its executive arm, the Urban Services Department, and
(ii) that plans should be made to create a Greater Hong Kong Council, with representation thereon from District Councils drawn from the N.T. conurbations.
It is up to the Council to formulate its views in relation to future Urban Council Development on these or other suitable lines; and to seek a dialogue with Government to reach sensible conclusions.
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
Let me turn now to some aspects of Government administration, with initial reference to a problem on which I have already commented in this and previous Debates-Government communication.
Communication
In recent weeks we have witnessed a remarkable break-down in contact between the Legislative Council and important areas of society and this despite Government's avowed promotion of more “Open Government" and closer contact with the people.
We have seen the collapse of the ill-conceived Post Office Bill, at second reading, in the face of strong opposition in public meeting. Last month, also, representative of 300 organization of all shades of Chinese opinion, met in the City Hall to reject certain Sections of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. This argument remains to be resolved.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
141
It is significant that no single member of our Legislative or Executive Councils thought it necessary, or desirable, to obtain first- hand impressions of community opinion by participating in either of these important public debates.
The community has also been placed in dilemma by Government's determination to enforce new Labour Legislation, on the one hand, and the equally compelling argument of industry that Government proposals are impracticable in their present form-particularly in small industry which still remains the back-bone of our economy.
All of this points to a pre-occupation of Government with its administrative processes, and the failure of the Legislative Council to identity and relate to community opinion. Indeed, one distinguished Queen's Counsel has referred in these current debates to the "Failure of communication between the business community, which is the heart of Hong Kong, and the policy-makers who often find themselves shut off, or even cut off, from the real daily life of the Colony”.
And why should this be?
Legislative Council
In its stated endeavour to make the Legislative Council "more representative of the people", a few new faces have been introduced. Unfortunately, the nett effect of this exercise has been to create con- fusion and an impression of "random selection" which has brought little sense of representation to the community. Some curious anomalies have arisen in the relative strengths of vested interests on our Legislative body; certain seats of power have been notably reinforced.
For more than 100 years Hong Kong enjoyed some system of indirect election to the Legislative Council through the nomination of representatives from the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce and the Justices of the Peace. Such nominees were, in fact, spokesmen for important areas of community opinion, drawing upon such advice, and accountable for their words and actions in the ultimate analysis. This essential quality of "accountability" is now lacking under present arrangements; I cannot judge this to be progress.
The substitution of an inadequate process of indirect election by one of random selection has created new problems and solved none. There must be strong reservations about any system of direct election to Legislative Council. However, the non-representative, non-account- able and remote nature of the Legislative Council at the present time leads one to the conclusion that it should be re-structured and re-
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