1998 — Page 112

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Page 112 of 606

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PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL

I have listened to the views of members of the DAB, Liberal Party, ADPL and Citizens' Rights Party but I am still not certain of what they think. I am afraid that even if a consensus is reached in this Council among members of a political party (such as the Democratic Party), there might be different views at the core of the party. The same might happen to the DAB. The case might have a different result when it gets to the Legislative Council. I therefore hope that Members will reach a unified position in this Council and then make their own political party present the same position in the Legislative Council. It is also hoped that Hon. Ambrose CHEUNG will be able to present a clearly defined position in the Legislative Council instead of having our Members giving diverse views. This will be conducive to the survival of the Urban Council. These are my remarks.

Mr. Chan Choi-Hi (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I believe that none of the Members present particularly object to the motion you have moved today, not even those in the minority group, such as me.

However, the question is what exactly the position we should present to the Central Government is. If it is one in favour of 'One Council and One Department', I will have reservation. My position has been clearly made known on many occasions, in the articles I have released and in the motion debate of the Provisional Legislative Council. I even put a letter into the Council's time capsule stating my wish that when the time capsule is unearthed one day, there will be a two-tier rather than a three-tier representative government in Hong Kong. I believe that my position is a very clear one. A number of my colleagues, including my friends in the DAB and Ms. Ada WONG of the Liberal Party, have also indicated the number of tiers of representative government that Hong Kong needs. Our direction is very clear. Hong Kong needs only a two-tier representative government, consisting of the Legislative Council at the centre and municipal councils or district organizations at the district level.

I wish to respond to the points raised by a few friends just now. After listening to them, I have some views which I want to share with them. The first point is about the improper timing. Some said there is an economic recession while some said there is the airport problem. Some said the consultation period is too short. I do not consider all these arguments as valid as they seem. You could cheat people with them, but don't cheat yourselves with them.

I don't know how the Democratic Party's survey was carried out. Since there is an economic recession, if you told respondents when you interviewed them that the dissolution of the two municipal councils would result in big savings in tax-payers' money, probably more than one third of them would give their support, although I am not certain what the outcome would be. This is something we would never know. The question is how the survey was carried out and what the findings were. I consider these to be quite controversial.

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