(Clearwisdom.net)

After the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority Ex-President, Chang Min-Yi, was forced into early retirement, she spoke publicly about current issues for the first time. She spoke about topics from Article 23 to SARS, weaving the idea of "the government sharing information with the people" throughout her entire speech. She stated that Article 23 had caused the non-publicly elected district government to further lose face with the people. She further criticized that in recent years the government has not connected with the people, and thus, made its citizens lose the "sense of participation."

Two nights ago, on a Hong Kong radio program, Chang Min-Yi stated that a non-publicly elected government who "looks at the world with a smile" could increase their degree of recognition and credibility by sharing information with the local people. The key to open communication is a free media. However recently, Article 23 posed a great threat to the media.

She criticized that currently, officials who have their own ideas and used to speak out, now keep their mouths closed because the government environment makes it difficult for them. This has happened because there is no media they can use to connect with local people.

Chang Min-Yi said, currently all officials with different ideas have had to leave. She offered a piece of advice to the current government: During the next four years, in addition to "vigorously developing economics," they also need to develop democracy in order to rescue Hong Kong. "Direct Elections" need to be discussed now.

Chang Min-Yi emphasized that the government did not listen to ordinary citizens' opinions of political policies. Just using common sense, even a common citizen who doesn't know much about Article 23 knows which party has higher credibility.

Chang Min-Yi also talked about SARS. She said, "SARS killed 298 people. Officials should apologize, whether they made a mistake or not. It is not necessary for some officials to loose their titles. But so far, no officials in Hong Kong have ever whole-heartedly apologized."

Posting date: 7/20/2003
Original article date: 7/19/2003
Category: News & Media Reports
Translated on 7/10/2003
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/6/30/53171.html

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