HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
343
(1) The Chinese name of Urban Council should be changed from '市政局' to '市政 council'. As in accordance with Article 101 of the Basic Law, Secretaries of Departments and Directors of Bureaux of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will be called '司' and '署' respectively, and all departments currently named as '署' in Chinese would be renamed as '局', the Urban Services Department would most probably be renamed as '市政總局' or '市政局' in Chinese instead of 市政總署. In order to avoid confusion at that time, we had better embark on the renaming work. Without reference to the issue of transition, '市政 council' may actually be considered a more appropriate Chinese name for Urban Council than '市政局'.
(2) The Transition of Urban Councillors
As no agreement has been reached between China and Britain on the political structure of Hong Kong and the automatic arrangement for all councillors of the three-tier representative government to ride the through train, some people suggest that these councillors be selected by the Selection Committee. I think it is definitely unfeasible and would only be a waste of time, money and manpower. In my opinion, to secure the effective continuation of the work of the representative government, the Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region may extend the appointments of all existing councillors until their present terms of office expire, of course, on the conditions that:
1. these councillors agree to accept the appointments; and
2. they agree to pledge allegiance to the SAR Government to serve the people of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. PAO PING-WING (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, the debate held today on the Statement of Aims, or what we call the Annual Conventional Debate, is the most special one I have ever participated in. Since this is the last Annual Conventional Debate before the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, my speech today will be quite different from those I delivered in the past. To support the Chairman's motion, I shall focus on my aspirations for the development of and arrangement for the Urban Council after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Firstly, the Urban Council has for the past years proved itself to be a non-political council. It always strives to improve the quality of life of the Hong Kong people and has achieved very successful results. Yet, if we pay attention to the Council's development, we may notice that the Central Government is taking steps to impose control measures on the Council, as well as to weaken our power, limit our areas of responsibility and tighten control over our financial resources allocation. Of course, there is room for argument on every single point, but I don't intend to spend the next 10 minutes debating them one by one. I only want to make a conclusion. If we follow closely the development
Page 301 of 498
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
343
(1) The Chinese name of Urban Council should be changed from 'to . As in accordance with Article 101 of the Basic Law, Secretaries
of Departments and Directors of Bureaux of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will be called 'F' and 'E' respectively, and all departments currently named as in Chinese would be renamed as ‘Fj`, the Urban Services Department would most probably be renamed as 'Ti 政總局'or ‘市政局’in Chinese instead of 市政總署. In order to avoid confusion at that time, we had better embark on the renaming work. Without reference to the issue of transition, i may actually be considered a more appropriate Chinese name for Urban Council than ‘ifi 政局.
(2) The Transition of Urban Councillors
As no agreement has been reached between China and Britain on the political structure of Hong Kong and the automatic arrangement for all councillors of the three-tier representative government to ride the through train, some people suggest that these councillors be selected by the Selection Committee. I think it is definitely unfeasible and would only be a waste of time, money and manpower. In my opinion, to secure the effective continuation of the work of the representative government, the Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region may extend the appointments of all existing councillors until their present terms of office expire, of course, on the conditions that:
1.
2.
these councillors agree to accept the appointments; and
they agree to pledge allegiance to the SAR Government to serve the people of Hong Kong.
Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I support the motion.
MR. PAO PING-WING (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, the debate held today on the Statement of Aims, or what we call the Annual Conventional Debate, is the most special one I have ever participated in. Since this is the last Annual Conventional Debate before the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, my speech today will be quite different from those 1 delivered in the past. To support the Chairman's motion, I shall focus on my aspirations for the development of and arrangement for the Urban Council after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Firstly, the Urban Council has for the past years proved itself to be a non- political council. It always strives to improve the quality of life of the Hong Kong people and has achieved very successful results. Yet, if we pay attention to the Council's development, we may notice that the Central Government is taking steps to impose control measures on the Council, as well as to weaken our power, limit our areas of responsibility and tighten control over our financial resources allocation. Of course, there is room for argument on every single point, but I don't intend to spend the next 10 minutes debating them one by one. I only want to make a conclusion. If we follow closely the development
Page 301 of 498
Page 301 of 498
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