1980 — Page 32

Page 32 of 120

14

32

# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

## ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN

CHAIRMAN (in English):-Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen.

## MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 June 1980 were confirmed.

## STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN

CHAIRMAN (in English):-Nearly 15 years have gone by since the Council put to the Government some specific proposals for the reform of the local administration. Notice was thus served to ease the tight hold on the reins.

No argument could be sensibly sustained in a community so enormously successful in the private sector that the local people would not be likewise capable of managing their own public affairs. Little progress had been made until then to give the people here a direct role in running the place in spite of the early postwar euphoria. So the stage was set. The Council took a strong collective initiative. The thrust was effective. It found its mark.

The Government's response was a proposal to create a new city administration eventually passed into law. Direct responsibility in defined areas with financial and executive authority in clear terms was entrusted exclusively to members of the public for the first time in Hong Kong's history. This Council is the result.

The new Council set about at once to put into practice effectively the powers vested in it. Hence, the radical transformation of policy and practice in the administration of the city. Indeed, it is said that the Council has even managed to give money-minded Hong Kong the semblance of a soul by organizing or sponsoring numerous cultural and recreational activities for the direct benefit of the common man the like of which the territory had never seen before. Much of the good that it also does pervasively when performing basic municipal functions is taken for granted here but its high professional competence is not lost on others in the region. All these achievements are perhaps more appreciated by the young and progressive than by the old and reactionary. By pushing ahead boldly in well-chosen directions, the Council has thus helped to enhance Hong Kong's standing in this part of the world and has also given new pride and pleasure to many in the community.

There has also been much development in the rural areas meanwhile. New towns have arisen. They contribute immensely to Hong Kong's economy and contain substantial numbers of people. Consequently, it is essential that these burgeoning towns should have their own local authorities closely identified with their needs and aspirations to create a true community spirit.

to an

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Page 32 of 120

33

The measures that the Government is now contemplating will give substance to the embryonic development of local identity and involvement and will surely succeed if the civil service is cautious not to play a dominant role to blunt enthusiasm.

Side by side in the urban areas, the older districts have formed numerous neighbourhood organizations and strengthened the workings of traditional institutions. Concern for the well-being of the neighbourhood has taken a positive turn. The momentum is now in the direction of involving the people living in a particular locality in working for the betterment of their own conditions. For they have a vital stake in the standard and quality of life there. Not only must this spirit be commended as a welcome change of attitude but it should also be given far stronger expression by more direct participation in decision-making. There ought to be no prompting by civil servants who should not be put in a position of excessive authority to risk the credibility of the new scheme itself. It stands or falls on the ability of the people outside the Government to make it work on their own.

The purpose of the Green Paper is not presumably to tease the advocates of reform but to seek public views in earnest. How can an emergent pattern of district administration be used to give more day-to-day power to the people? This seems to be the real question.

For public debate are whether the proposals go far enough to meet the aspirations of the people concerned and whether they penetrate sufficiently into the essential aspects of their daily life, among other issues, basic and ancillary. What matters indeed is that a sound and logical step should be taken very soon to open wider the doors for neighbourhood participation in running their own affairs, without the Government's heavy presence on the centre of the stage. Is this perhaps a forlorn hope altogether?

Inevitably, with higher standards of education and greater exposure to all that goes on in the world about Hong Kong, among other cogent reasons, the people will expect that more devolution of authority to their institutions will be made on a practical plane. It is essentially the responsibility of the Government to prepare these groups for more community work in ever more important roles to discharge vital functions. They will grow predictably in standing with each measured expansion of their local responsibility and the accompanying increase of their real authority. It is hoped that the Government will continue at the same time to dismantle the existing threadbare structure of monolithic power and replace it with collegial responsibility made to order and capable of working competently in a manner befitting Hong Kong's business pre-eminence in this day and age. The new form of subsidiary administration will gradually fit into the future power structure without disrupting progress and wrecking prosperity.

Respect for local attitudes and traditional concepts requires changes to be made in the idiom and context the people can easily understand and will

Page 32 of 120