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Now that the dust has settled in LegCo
with the Professional Accountants (Amendment) Bill safely
passed and the final chapter of my 18th Public Accounts
Committee Report on the controversial subject of the
¡¥Harbour Fest¡¦ signed, sealed and delivered to a satisfied
general public, I can at last breath a sigh of relief and
start to reflect on my 13 years of rough and tumble in
politics.
I said in ¡¥A tribute to politics¡¦
published here in the June issue that I had entered
politics with a dream to make a difference. On reflection,
I believe I can honestly say that I did not let the
privilege of serving you pass without making some
differences to our lives. For the record, I would perhaps
just like to simply list out some of the more notable ones
below without any frills.
Community Services
1) Promulgated the official Youth Charter of rights
and responsibilities for all young people in Hong Kong,
2) Sponsored the private Member Bill to establish the
Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and South East Asia,
3) Sponsored the first debate of rehabilitation
policies in LegCo and caused the LegCo building to be
renovated to provide public access to persons with
disabilities,
4) Raised the question of heavy school bags as a
symbol of the unjustified burden that our education system
is placing on the shoulders of our school children and
ignited many lively debates and researches on how to
improve their learning experiences,
5) Persuaded the administration to extend the
Comprehensive Composite Assistance Scheme (CSSA) to those
Elderly persons who wish to retire and live in the
Mainland,
6) Raised the controversial question of whether or not
the keeping of a second wife in China should be deemed as
equivalent to bigamy. The hot debates that ensued prompted
heavy penalties to be imposed by the Chinese Authorities
and the enhancement of family support services in Hong
Kong,
7) Strongly supported athletes with disabilities to
compete successfully in international events e.g. Special
Olympics,
8) Strongly suggested ahead of all other politicians
that higher education should be treated as an industry
with a broad international outlook rather than as a
growing expense just to educate the local populace,
Public Finance and Economic Policies
9) Contributed as the longest serving Public Accounts
Committee chairman in the history of Hong Kong,
10) Served as a member of the Exchange Fund Investment
Limited and acted as its key spokesman to successfully
launch the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong,
11) Advocated on behalf of the accounting profession a
system of accrual accounting for Government and eventually
succeeded in bringing about the change last year,
12) Advocated a comprehensive Public Sector Reform to
better manage our Civil Servants and public resources in
their hands with some degree of success e.g. the listing
of the MTRC and the Airport Authority to follow, the
introduction of outsourcing and experimental Private
Sector Funding Initiatives (PFI),
13) Attacked the confusing Housing Policies of the HKSAR
after the handover and helped its restoration to depend on
free market principles again,
14) Critical comments on issues like the wasteful and
costly supply of water from across the border, Cyberport,
3G mobile phone licensing, scheme of control on
electricity supply, excessive building of expensive
railways and highways like the infamous Route 10 had all
caused the administration to critically review its
positions to better protect public interests,
15) Amongst the first to articulate in public the case
for the need to seriously study Sales Tax, the phenomena
of structural deficits, the logic of keeping huge fiscal
reserves, the abolition of Estate Duty and the appropriate
time to issue Government bonds,
16) First to suggest the present basic formula of
Mandatory Provident Fund,
The Accounting Profession
17) Signed the Memorandum of Mutual Cooperation with the
CICPA as HKSA President in 1994 to provide the direction
and framework for the many tangible developments that have
followed,
18) Mapped out the policy directions and laid the
foundation for the QP programme including the objectives
to attain multiple international mutual recognitions,
19) Played an active role behind the decisions to
publicly express the accountants¡¦ concerns in the June 4th
incident by paid newspaper advertisement, to hold the
first HKSA ball in 1993, to form the HKAAT, to purchase
HKSA¡¦s first office premises, to set up the voluntary free
advisory services scheme and subsequently, the full
Accountants Ambassador program etc.,
20) Sponsored the momentous Professional Accountants
(Amendment) Bill as my private member bill,
Political Development
21) Drafted the part on political development of the
HKSA submission to the Basic Law Drafters and proposed an
evolutionary approach with universal suffrage as the
ultimate goal. The Basic Law eventually adopted this broad
approach as we had proposed,
22) Wrote to Chris Patten, the former Governor, and
successfully urged him to make public the seven letters of
diplomatic exchanges between China and England on the
political development of Hong Kong. These letters later
took centre stage in the great debate,
23) Served as Hong Kong Affairs Advisor to China¡¦s State
Council and a member of the Preparatory Committee to
prepare for the historic changeover in 1997,
24) Conducted an updated comprehensive survey of
accountants on the topic in 2004 that would provide a
chance for you to speak up and be counted, and
25) Stated the cause of the ¡¥Middle Class¡¦ as an
important skilled, stabilising force of the society, which
had been under appreciated for too long.
I hope this last column of mine will
end on a positive note and leave you with a reasonably
favourable impression of your outgoing LegCo
representative. It is a role that I have felt very proud
and honoured to fill. I am also privileged to have shared
these 13 good and productive years with many great and
dedicated accountants and staff in the HKSA Council, our
secretariat, committees, officials of the Hong Kong
branches of our overseas peer bodies, my personal advisors
and corresponding friends. I enjoyed your wise counsels,
constructive comments, unfailing support and above all,
your valued friendship. Without you, there will not be the
record of achievement that we can all look back and be
proud of as accountants. As I am now fully prepared to
hand over the torch, my last task is to appeal to you to
vote on 12 September and support your next representative
with the same sort of vigour and enthusiasm that I became
accustomed to. Sincere thanks and farewell!
Dr Eric Li is the LegCo
Accountancy Functional Constituency Representative. For
more information, refer to his website at
http://www.ericli.org
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