Three decades on, it's time to recognise the brainchild of governor Murray MacLehose
ELIZABETH WONG
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 11:22pm
UPDATED : Friday, 27 November, 2015, 10:08am
Elizabeth Wong (third left) at a 1982 ball. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Last Sunday's district council elections turned a new page in the annals of democratic development in the city.
Three decades on from its inception, there are finally no appointed members - all district council members have to undergo the baptism of fire of election.
On election day, there was a record voter turnout, many newly registered and young.
Notwithstanding the heated debate between the candidates, on polling day there was a particular local flavour of sophistication mixed with civilised behaviour.
However, just as how in life one should doubt what one is cocksure about, so in politics, one should expect the unexpected. This time, surprise, surprise, several veterans from different political camps were voted out; and new candidates with young faces, including one in a wheelchair, were voted in.
Democracy is about putting people first and about the power of the polls. One should not underestimate the wisdom of voters who trust those who speak their language and are willing to serve them. Councillors will find out whether or not they have done a good job at the next round of elections.
To give credit where it's due, the concept of local administration via election was the baby of the longest serving governor of Hong Kong, Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, who initiated the idea in his consultative paper entitled: A Pattern of District Administration in Hong Kong.
Following consultation, district boards were set up in 1981.
Before Governor MacLehose retired from Hong Kong in 1982, a group of us founding members of the government's Senior Female Officers' Association, paid tribute to him in the form of a song, set to the tune of Stephen Foster's Beautiful Dreamer. I wrote the lyrics.
Of the many verses we sang, there was one on the district board, with perhaps a touch of prescience:
Oh dear Sir Murray, a worthy lord,
He's just invented the district board,
We don't know what all this is about,
But years later we might find out.
Now, if I were to rewrite the lyrics, the verse would read:
Let us all in this city rejoice,
Men and women, girls and boys,
Democracy is here to stay
District councils have led the way.
While we have not achieved universal suffrage top-down by electing our chief executive, we have at least achieved universal suffrage bottom-up, via district council elections.
Elizabeth Wong Chien Chi-lien was secretary for health and welfare from 1990 to 1994 and a lawmaker from 1995 to 1997
http://m.scmp.com/news/article/1883980/second-thought-after-30-years-time-contribution-district-councils-hong-kongs
