Recently, there are a lot of discussions in Hong Kong regarding political reform and the health problems of the Legislative Councilors. Since 1991, there have already four councilors died in their term of office, and also a number of councilors experience serious health problems and has to be hospitalized for lengthy period of time. Many of them are still under close medical supervision and attention.

Due to the nature of their jobs, councilors have to work long hours and can rarely follow a regular nine to five working schedule. If CH Tung had a 7 to 11 schedule, legislative councilors have similar pattern but with less support and assistance. In many situations, legislative councilors have to work under extreme stress and this affects their mental and physical health. Councilors also have busy and tight schedule and it is not unusual for them to skip meals or have unhealthy eating habits.

You probably have noticed that most councilors are in terrible physical shape. When the Council is in session, councilors always have to attend meetings and sit continuously for hours. With this type of working environment, how can you expect our councilors to maintain proper physical condition? On top of their heavy council schedule and duty, the majority of the councilors still have their own profession to practice and business to attend. In present, there are only 23 percent of the councilors declaring themselves as full time councilors. Others are only in the Council on a part-time basis. Many councilors are business people and they have a wide variety of business to attend. In the Council, some councilors even did not bother to involve in any bill committee and they rarely participated in panel and committee meetings.

If you look at the fatality rate of the councilors, it is no doubt that elected politician can be classified as a risky job. Being in such high risk profession, Hong Kong ’ s councilors still have no medical benefit and no pension. If you look at the honorarium package, councilors have virtually no fringe benefit. The only benefit that the councilors enjoy is that they can have free parking in Central.

I always believe that legislative councilor should be full time profession. According to the Basic Law, Legislative Council is responsible to enact, amend or repeal laws, and to examine and approve budgets introduced by the Government. It should be noticed that the budget is amount to 218 billions of dollars. Any oversight and improper scrutiny will lead to government wastage. In addition, the council is also responsible to approve taxation and public expenditure. Councilors can also raise questions on the work of the Government, to debate any issue concerning public interests and to receive and handle complaints from Hong Kong residents. Since 1991, I have been in the council on a full time basis. There were times that I felt I didn ’ t have sufficient time to do my work properly. I always doubt that with their restricted time frame, part time councilor will have great difficulty to handle their jobs responsibly. In order to do our jobs properly, councilors have to attend meetings, to meet concerned individuals and organizations, and to study documents, laws and bills carefully before meetings. It is important to raise proper questions and to monitor government policy and behavior.

For geographical elected councilors, we also have to deal with complaint cases in our constituency. It is not unusual that each councilor has to handle hundreds of cases each month and these cases involve housing, welfare, transportation, family and financial problems, etc. In many of these cases, the councilors have to meet the complainants in person and have to hear their concerns. Councilors also have to attend meetings in the community and to address community ’ s need and concern.

With the heavy responsibility and heavy burden of work, it is illogical that the Hong Kong Government still classifies the work of the legislative councilor not as full-time duty, but as pure community services. The reason and logic of the Government is quiet simple, the Government doesn ’ t want legislative councilors to commit full time to oversee the government ’ s operation. The more the councilors study the issues the more faults that they will find in the Government, and they will bring more embarrassment to the Government. Councilors ’ criticism will create negative image of our administration. It is quite clear that the Government has their own political agenda. But for the public, I believe that the public should look at the overall issue and also the nature of the work of the council more rationally. I believe that if the public is fully aware of the nature of work of the council, they should support that the job of their elected representatives should be on a full time basis.

There is also one interesting phenomenon in our political system. In Council ’ s meetings, including the full Council meeting and the meetings of the committees and panels, the lowest rank government officials who attend the meeting have higher pay than the councilors. The salary of an Assistant Director of department (D2) has a salary of $115,000 per month, which is double of the salary of legislative councilor. The salary of a Chief Engineer (D1) is $97,250 per month, which is 77% more than the salary of a legislative councilor. If you compare the salary of the secretary of the bureau, which is $298,115 per month, it is about 600% of the salary of the councilors. It should be noted that the civic servants are also entitled to all civil servants benefits, including housing allowance, medical coverage, pension, etc.

In many other countries, especially in Europe, United state and Canada, nearly all members of the parliament are being considered as full time job. They have to resign from their job and cannot practice their profession. They have to entrust their business to the trustee so that the parliamentarian can totally dedicate to the job of the parliament and to fulfill their duty in parliament. In many countries, even members of the provincial and state legislatures are also considered full time profession and they have arrangement similar to the of the parliament.

If Hong Kong legislative councilor continues to be part-timers, Hong Kong politician can never become a true profession who will have public respect and recognition. Scrutinizing bills and monitoring government policy require knowledge and skills. If people really want their councilors to fulfill their public duty and to properly monitor government policy and public expenditure, Hong Kong needs a committed Legislative Council and those councilors have to work full time to protect public interest. Turning full time is an indication of commitment and dedication. If the representatives of the highest elected body refuse to commit on a full time basis, it means that they have other priority rather than committing to serve the people of Hong Kong. I don ’ t think you can rely on a bunch of part-timers to monitor that work of a 160,000 people ’ s professional body. If people around the world believe that their highest representative body should be on a full time basis, people in Hong Kong should show the same commitment and dedication.