HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
of the Daya Bay nuclear power station which endangers us all and about which I warned in my speech last year. But as the Chairman pointed out, I am supposed to be allowed to speak only 15 minutes.
I can't remember a time when so many problems faced us all at once. It used to be that either we had serious political problems such as 1967, or serious economic problems such as 1973, but rarely have we had them together and it is most disturbing to note that in 1988 we face a mounting wave of political and economic problems, all of which should be discussed and solved as soon as possible because all of them could affect every citizen, and if not tackled properly could spell the downfall of Hong Kong as we know it.
On the economic front we have serious problems with the HK$ which threaten double digit inflation, and an acceleration of protectionist policies the world over, but especially in the United States which, if implemented, could destroy part of our industry very quickly. But today I don't want to talk about economics and trade because I think the political problems facing us are far more serious. However, for those members interested, I am tabling a note I wrote for the local newspapers setting out my views as to why I think it is essential that the HK$ link should be changed from the US$ to a basket of currencies.
On the political front, we are faced in the short term with the White Paper which, as far as this Council is concerned, may herald the destruction of the Urban Council, a process which Government initiated some five years ago, and which in view of the recent announcement made about the removal of Urban Councillors from District Boards in 1989 obviously will bring us a surfeit of members indirectly elected from District Boards who, by the nature of their interests, will have very little to contribute to our work, and because of their narrow point of view will probably impede it. If I am right as to what I think the White Paper will contain appertaining to the Urban Council then Government will leave us very few choices to react. One choice could be a decision by the majority of members not to allow any indirectly elected members of this Council to sit on Select Committees. Another could be a mass resignation of all Councillors in protest.
Although the reasons why we think the decision made by Government is an excessively bad one have already been given by our Chairman in his letter to the Chief Secretary, Legco Members are now asking in public statements for very good reasons from us as to why they should vote against Government's arbitrary decision. Let me set some of these out a little more plainly:
(1) The Survey just conducted by the Government itself showed an overwhelming majority of those asked did not want any change in the Urban Council set up. So the public is on our side, not on Government's side.
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(2) The efficiency of this Council will be affected by the need for Councillors to fight two elections within three years, every three years, and by the joining of indirectly elected District Board members who will, by the very nature of their interests which is mainly to get re-elected by their District Board, have to be obstructive to the aims of this Council which as our Chairman pointed out, unlike the District Board, is concerned with the City as a whole. The necessary enlargement of Select Committees will make meetings longer and unnecessarily divisive (this is why I am advocating that if the Council gets ten additional indirectly elected District Board members they should be barred from taking part in Select Committee work and be allowed to sit only in the Whole Council).
(3) It is a major step backwards from directly elected members of this Council to indirectly elected members, especially when the directly elected members are elected by 15,000 or 20,000 votes while the indirectly elected would be elected by, at most, 40 votes and those who elect these indirectly elected have themselves been elected with less than 1,500 votes.
(4) And now we come to the crux of the problem. District Boards were created as a sop for the public, as a safety valve to let off the hot air which accumulates when the people can have no influence on Government. It was never in any way intended that they should have any real power, and the Civil Service, and especially the CNTA has seen to it that they do not get any power. The result is that District Board members have no prestige among the public. In fact, they have become something of a laughing stock. At the same time, the Government treats them as a sacred cow to show off how very democratic the Government is since here they are listening to publicly elected representatives. It is true they listen, but when do they actually take their advice? I can really only remember one time in the six years of the existence of District Boards that Government have reversed themselves because of District Board advice, and that was ERP which was anyhow so unpopular inside Government that most members of the Government were just looking for an excuse to dump it. The result is absolute frustration in District Boards and some of that frustration is directed against Urban Councillors. And here let me give you a personal example. I worked very hard in the Kwun Tong District Board to try and do something about the quite unacceptable air pollution in Kwun Tong as well as other types of pollution including dangerous discharges of chemicals from small electroplating shops into the street etc. etc. In line with District Board's ineffectiveness I didn't achieve very much. During my tenure Kwun Tong District Board members and members of the public came up to me and thanked me for that I was doing, but they never did it in public because I was an Urban Councillor! I also represented the Kwun Tong's District aspirations for a City Hall and for sports grounds etc. faithfully to the Urban Council and was in fact instrumental, with the help of my fellow Urban Councillors on that District Board, in accelerating the
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of the Daya Bay nuclear power station which endangers us all and about which I warned in my speech last year. But as the Chairman pointed out, I am supposed to be allowed to speak only 15 minutes.
I can't remember a time when so many problems faced us all at once. It used to be that either we had serious political problems such as 1967, or serious economic problems such as 1973, but rarely have we had them together and it is most disturbing to note that in 1988 we face a mounting wave of political and economic problems, all of which should be discussed and solved as soon as possible because all of them could affect every citizen, and if not tackled properly could spell the downfall of Hong Kong as we know it.
On the economic front we have serious problems with the HK$ which threaten double digit inflation, and an acceleration of protectionist policies the world over, but especially in the United States which, if implemented, could destroy part of our industry very quickly. But today I don't want to talk about economics and trade because I think the political problems facing us are far more serious. However, for those members interested, I am tabling a note I wrote for the local newspapers setting out my views as to why I think it is essential that the HK$ link should be changed from the US$ to a basket of currencies.
On the political front, we are faced in the short term with the White Paper which, as far as this Council is concerned, may herald the destruction of the Urban Council, a process which Government initiated some five years ago, and which in view of the recent announcement made about the removal of Urban Councillors from District Boards in 1989 obviously will bring us a surfeit of members indirectly elected from District Boards who, by the nature of their interests, will have very little to contribute to our work, and because of their narrow point of view will probably impede it. If I am right as to what I think the White Paper will contain appertaining to the Urban Council then Government will leave us very few choices to react. One choice could be a decision by the majority of members not to allow any indirectly elected members of this Council to sit on Select Committees. Another could be a mass resignation of all Councillors in protest.
Although the reasons why we think the decision made by Government is an excessively bad one have already been given by our Chairman in his letter to the Chief Secretary, Legco Members are now asking in public statements for very good reasons from us as to why they should vote against Government's arbitrary decision. Let me set some of these out a little more plainly:
(1) The Survey just conducted by the Government itself showed an over- whelming majority of those asked did not want any change in the Urban Council set up. So the public is on our side, not on Government's side.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 127 of 185
245
(2) The efficiency of this Council will be affected by the need for Councillors to fight two elections within three years, every three years, and by the joining of indirectly elected District Board members who will, by the very nature of their interests which is mainly to get re-elected by their District Board, have to be obstructive to the aims of this Council which as our Chairman pointed out, unlike the District Board, is concerned with the City as a whole. The necessary enlargement of Select Committees will make meetings longer and unnecessarily divisive (this is why I am advocating that if the Council gets ten additional indirectly elected District Board members they should be barred from taking part in Select Committee work and be allowed to sit only in the Whole Council). (3) It is a major step backwards from directly elected members of this Council to indirectly elected members, especially when the directly elected members are elected by 15 000 or 20 000 votes while the indirectly elected would be elected by, at most, 40 votes and those who elect these indirectly elected have themselves been elected with less than 1 500 votes. (4) And now we come to the crux of the problem. District Boards were created as a sop for the public, as a safety valve to let off the hot air which accumulates when the people can have no influence on Govern- ment. It was never in any way intended that they should have any real power, and the Civil Service, and especially the CNTA has seen to it that they do not get any power. The result is that District Board members have no prestige among the public. In fact, they have become something of a laughing stock. At the same time, the Government treats them as a sacred cow to show off how very democratic the Government is since here they are listening to publicly elected representatives. It is true they listen, but when do they actually take their advice? I can really only remember one time in the six years of the existence of District Boards that Government have reversed themselves because of District Board advice, and that was ERP which was anyhow so unpopular inside Government that most members of the Government were just looking for an excuse to dump it. The result is absolute frustration in District Boards and some of that frustration is directed against Urban Council- lors. And here let me give you a personal example. I worked very hard in the Kwun Tong District Board to try and do something about the quite unacceptable air pollution in Kwun Tong as well as other types of pollution including dangerous discharges of chemicals from small electroplating shops into the street etc. etc. In line with District Board's ineffectiveness I didn't achieve very much. During my tenure Kwun Tong District Board members and members of the public came up to me and thanked me for that I was doing, but they never did it in public because I was an Urban Councillor! I also represented the Kwun Tong's District aspirations for a City Hall and for sports grounds etc. faithfully to the Urban Council and was in fact instrumental, with the help of my fellow Urban Councillors on that District Board, in accelerating the
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