1992 — Page 81

Page 81 of 126

138

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

announced a number of policy proposals, two of which have important implications for the Council.

First, it was proposed that Government Departments should adopt performance pledges and I believe that this proposal should also be adopted by the Council.

I suggest that we begin the exercise by preparing a statement of the standards of service to which we aspire for each of the primary services we provide to the public. We should then devise a set of performance indicators against which our standards can be set, taking into account resources available and the needs of the public. It is important to take the public interest as the starting point, therefore, part of the exercise will be to explore ways of encouraging feed-back and ensuring that channels of communication with the community are as open, efficient and 'user friendly' as possible.

I have given some thought to how we might apply performance pledges and I offer the following examples as suggestions.

First, street cleaning. Although our streets are regularly cleaned, there are still times when rubbish is left around for too long. How clean can the public reasonably expect our streets to be? The answer should be based on a pledge to clean the streets as often as is necessary to a standard which could be measured against the number of reported incidents within a given period of time (say one week) when rubbish is allowed to remain uncleared for more than, say, three hours.

Second, restaurant licensing: we are already aware of complaints about delays in the issuing of licences. It would help matters if all the other Government Departments involved in this exercise could give a pledge as to the time they would take to respond to applications, stating the reasons for any problems with the application and undertaking to reply to any further submissions within a time limit. We could then undertake to issue licenses within a given period after receiving notification from these Departments that all their requests have been complied with.

The same criteria could be used regarding our public parks and playgrounds. What will we accept as a tolerable level of breakdowns based on the number and frequency of usage? In our libraries, the maximum waiting time for a book which has to be ordered should be stated and here, as in other services, I suggest the level of assistance which our staff will provide should also be stated, after taking into account the needs of the public. Queuing times at Urbtix counters is another possibility.

Finally, two common measures of performances would be: how quickly can the public expect to receive a substantive reply to correspondence and how fast is the response to enquiries or complaints on the hotline?

I suggest that each Select Committee should consider how it can adopt the principle of the performance pledge and present its proposals to the Standing Committee of the whole Council.

Page 81 of 126

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Page 81 of 126

139

This proposal is, I believe a positive step forward unlike the proposal to abolish the practice of appointing members to the Urban Council.

I ask the question what is wrong with the Urban Council that makes a change a necessity? If it is thought that we are not doing a good job, the proper course of action would be to hold a review in order to identify any problems and make recommendations to reform. To make sense of the proposal in its first place, we would have to accept that the Council works badly and that abolishing appointed members will make it work better. If this is not the case, the implication is that the proposed changes are based on a principle for the sake of the principle itself rather than for any rational design.

The Urban Council has evolved naturally and gradually over more than 100 years as a product of the particular and unique circumstances of Hong Kong. It is not elections which have come to ensure that the Council is truly representative, but the system of combining elected and appointed members. Election would not achieve a more representative Council for three reasons:

One, election turnout has always been low, is there any reason to believe that this will change? Two, representatives of large and significant sectors of the community will not stand for election because they are not politically motivated. Three, Hong Kong is a fledgling democracy, its electors and electoral base are still inexperienced and small in number.

What would be the effect of a fully elected Urban Council? First, as I have said, it would definitely not be more representative. Second, it would be unbalanced because elected members are traditionally from the education, health and welfare sectors whereas appointed members tend to come from the professions, banking and business sectors. Incidentally, ‘outside' advisers may then have to be employed to compensate for the loss of members' expertise; this would be expensive and members would rightly be seen as not doing their job. Third, councillors would be more likely to be motivated by political considerations and to make decisions based on party line rather than sound reason. In short, the Urban Council would be less efficient and less effective.

I see our Urban Council as an example of what can be achieved by a group of people as diverse as the society they represent, working together for the common good. The spirit here is of co-operation: elected and appointed members complement each other and guarantee the range of background, experience, skills and interests which are absolutely essential to the enterprise. In these days of increasing confrontation, political rivalry and uncertainty for the people of Hong Kong, the record of our Urban Council is something to be proud of. We have set a standard for others to follow. I hope that the Governor, members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and, indeed, the entire community, will think carefully about the implications of these proposals for the future of Hong Kong.

With these remarks, I support the motion.

Page 81 of 126