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and employees as fast as it is feasible to do so within our existing social and economic systems.
The recent China Motor Bus strike has brought out in stark relief the urgency of the problem, which is as follows: our working population are living longer, they have comparatively little social security in their old age, and therefore they feel insecure and fatalistic in what the future has in store for them. To rectify the situation, the Hong Kong Government should accelerate the process of introducing progressively a compulsory provident fund scheme suitable to Hong Kong conditions.
The Visual Arts
The snail-like pace at which the Government has been proceeding to coordinate and promote development of the visual arts is a great disappointment to all concerned.
The Working Group which prepared the Report of the Visual Arts Policy Working Group was formed in July 1987 and completed its report in November 1988.
To date, the Government has not yet arrived at any tentative conclusions on the key recommendations and proposals in this report.
In now tabling for inclusion in Hansard a copy of this report, I wish to express support for the following points contained in the Report:
(1) that Government carry out a more thorough study of Art education to the public in general and on the feasibility of setting up an Art Academy in particular. (paragraph 40).
(2) that Government include an arts channel (or compulsory arts programme time) in connection with arrangements for the proposed cable television network. (paragraph 47).
(3) that Government set up an advisory board separate from the Council for the Performing Arts on the promotion of the visual arts. (paragraph 48). I would urge Government to actively follow up on this Report, especially on the three points I have raised.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI (in English): Mr. Chairman, I expect in the course of today and Thursday that you would hear several speeches touching on the inadequacies of the present proposed Basic Law. I will undoubtedly agree with several of the points made, particularly any which deal with the possibly inadequate separation of the Judiciary from the Executive and the strong argument for allowing the courts in Hong Kong to be the final interpreter of the terms of the Basic Law itself, by delegation if necessary. However, time is short with so many people to speak and today I will confine myself to three subjects
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namely, (1) The method of elections in 1991, (2) The involuntary repatriation of some Vietnamese and (3) Observations on the Council's own financial position, as Chairman of the Finance Select Committee.
(1) Elections in 1991
The Government in its wisdom has decided to hold all direct elections for the District Boards, the Regional and Urban Councils and the Legislative Council, in the same year i.e. 1991. However, at present, they are not going to be held at the same time. Firstly, (probably in March) it proposes elections for the District Board, then a little later the elections for the Urban and Regional Councils and finally in the middle of the summer, elections for the Legislative Council. If the Government in fact do work in this time schedule, then in my own opinion, by the time that we come to direct elections for the Legislative Council, the grass-root people will be so fed up with taking time to go to and from the polling stations, that even though it would be first time the Government holds direct elections for the Legislative Council, it will still inevitably result in a relatively poor turn-out.
I suggest that the elections for the polling stations for the District Boards be the polling stations also for the Urban or Regional Councils and the Legislative Council. That each voter, votes three times in all, on three different parts of the voting paper, part 1 being Legislative Council, part 2 being Urban or Regional Councils and part 3 being the District Boards. It is not hard to organize and the Government have more than a year to take the necessary administrative actions. Of course it is up to any candidate to decide for which council (or board) he proposes to stand, always remembering that, if he feels he has the time to devote to more than one council, then there is no objection to his being a candidate for two or even all three of them. It is up to him.
The District Board constituencies and sub-constituencies are well established already, as are the Urban and Regional Council constituencies. For myself, I would like to divide the Legislative Council into only three constituencies, namely, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. In that way, when one gets to that level Legislative Council, the individual councillors would be more inclined to deal with the policies of the territory as a whole, rather than the more particular problems of the individual Districts, or even those of the Urban and Regional Councils.
In that way, there would be one terrific campaign, the three layers of the Government all being directly elected at the same time, and I hope, a very great boost to public morale and confidence. By reason of the fact that all three elections are being carried on at the same time, three or at the most four weeks of great enthusiasm will be caused throughout the whole territory to the general public, even though, perhaps, it would be three or four weeks of absolute hell for the candidates themselves.
As a concession to the present hardline regime in Peking, I personally am prepared to agree to 18 directly elected members of Legislative Council in 1991,
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and employees as fast as it is feasible to do so within our existing social and economic systems.
The recent China Motor Bus strike has brought out in stark relief the urgency of the problem, which is as follows: our working population are living longer, they have comparatively little social security in their old age, and therefore they feel insecure and fatalistic in what the future has in store for them. To rectify the situation, the Hong Kong Government should accelerate the process of introducing progressively a compulsory provident fund scheme suitable to Hong Kong conditions.
The Visual Arts
The snail-like pace at which the Government has been proceeding to coordinate and promote development of the visual arts is a great disappointment to all concerned.
The Working Group which prepared the Report of the Visual Arts Policy Working Group was formed in July 1987 and completed its report in November 1988.
To date, the Government has not yet arrived at any tentative conclusions on the key recommendations and proposals in this report.
In now tabling for inclusion in Hansard a copy of this report, I wish to express support for the following points contained in the Report:
(1) that Government carry out a more thorough study of Art education to the public in general and on the feasibility of setting up an Art Academy in particular. (paragraph 40).
(2) that Government include an arts channel (or compulsory arts programme time) in connection with arrangements for the proposed cable television network. (paragraph 47).
(3) that Government set up an advisory board separate from the Council for
the Performing Arts on the promotion of the visual arts. (paragraph 48). I would urge Government to actively follow up on this Report, especially on the three points I have raised.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI (in English):-Mr. Chairman, I expect in the course of today and Thursday that you would hear several speeches touching on the inadequacies of the present proposed Basic Law. I will undoubtedly agree with several of the points made, particularly any which deal with the possibly inadequate separation of the Judiciary from the Executive and the strong argument for allowing the courts in Hong Kong to be the final interpreter of the terms of the Basic Law itself, by delegation if necessary. However, time is short with so many people to speak and today I will confine myself to three subjects
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201
namely, (1) The method of elections in 1991, (2) The involuntary repatriation of some Vietnamese and (3) Observations on the Council's own financial position, as Chairman of the Finance Select Committee.
(1) Elections in 1991
The Government in its wisdom has decided to hold all direct elections for the District Boards, the Regional and Urban Councils and the Legislative Council, in the same year i.e. 1991. However, at present, they are not going to be held at the same time. Firstly, (probably in March) it proposes elections for the District Board, then a little later the elections for the Urban and Regional Councils and finally in the middle of the summer, elections for the Legislative Council. If the Government in fact do work in this time schedule, then in my own opinion, by the time that we come to direct elections for the Legislative Council, the grass-root people will be so fed up with taking time to go to and from the polling stations, that even though it would be first time the Government holds direct elections for the Legislative Council, it will still inevitably result in a relatively poor turn-out.
I suggest that the elections for the polling stations for the District Boards be the polling stations also for the Urban or Regional Councils and the Legislative Council. That each voter, votes three times in all, on three different parts of the voting paper, part 1 being Legislative Council, part 2 being Urban or Regional Councils and part 3 being the District Boards. It is not hard to organize and the Government have more than a year to take the necessary administrative actions. Of course it is up to anyone candidate to decide for which council (or board) he proposes to stand, always remembering that, if he feels he has the time to devote to more than one council, then there is no objection to his being a candidate for two or even all three of them. It is up to him.
The District Board constituencies and sub constituencies are well established already, as are the Urban and Regional Council constituencies. For myself, I would like to divide the Legislative Council into only three constituencies, namely, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. In that way, when one gets to that level Legislative Council, the individual councillors would be more inclined to deal with the policies of the territory as a whole, rather than the more particular problems of the individual Districts, or even those of the Urban and Regional Councils.
In that way, there would be one terrific campaign, the three layers of the Government all being directly elected at the same time, and I hope, a very great boost to public morale and confidence. By reason of the fact that all three elections are being carried on at the same time, three or at the most four weeks of great enthusiasm will be caused throughout the whole territory to the general public, even though, perhaps, it would be three or four weeks of absolute hell for the candidates themselves.
As a concession to the present hardline regime in Peking, I personally am prepared to agree to 18 directly elected members of Legislative Council in 1991,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.