Rural committees are secretive and accountable to no-one, Dave Newbery, Cathay captain and Hoi Ha activist, writes in an open letter to the Home Affairs Department. The rural committees also spend public money that disappears without trace, he said, copying the letter to the Audit Commission.
To make his case Dave gave SAI KUNG BUZZ copies of three letters.They show a widening divide between indigenous villagers and non-indigenous residents, at least in Hoi Ha. Here are excerpts from each:
OPEN LETTER TO HOME AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT AND AUDIT COMMISSION By Dave Newbery. Summarised and paraphrased for brevity:
I asked the Home Affairs Department for agendas and minutes of Sai Kung North Rural Committee meetings and received a reply from the Taipo District Office. “According to the Sai Kung North Rural Committee (SKNRC) the details of their meeting is (sic) not open to the public…”
Further correspondence produced this concession from the SKNRC: “They have made a resolution to provide relevant extracts of minutes of meetings to the villager upon request.”
The passage of time, with indigenous people moving out and non-indigenous folk moving in, has meant that many villages are now overwhelmingly populated by non-indigenous residents. These people have no representation on the rural committees and no way of finding out what their representatives are saying on their behalf, Dave writes.
The rural committees have a lot of political influence: their opinion is sought by the Government and the committee chair sits on the Heung Yee Kuk and on the District Council.
The telling phrase, Dave said, is this from the SKNRC letter below: “The primary aim of the rural committee is to look after the traditional interest of the indigenous villagers particularly to safeguard their traditional rights on village houses.”
The rural committees receive monies from the public purse and members are paid by the Government. But there is no accountability for these funds.
Legislation should be introduced to control the working of the rural committees, Dave said, asking what the HAD was doing about this “unacceptable situation”.
LETTER TO SAI KUNG NORTH RURAL COMMITTEE FROM 35 NON-INDIGENOUS RESIDENTS OF HOI HA February 11, 2014. Excerpts:
Non-indigenous villagers outnumber the indigenous villagers by five to one in Hoi Ha, yet their views have been totally ignored.
There has been not a single meeting of villagers with their representative since the election three years ago.
THE SKNRC should represent all villagers not just a narrow power-base of people with massive vested interests, and property developers.
A small group of individuals… are quite content to see the environment and landscape around Hoi Ha destroyed. The agricultural land around Hoi Ha is almost entirely owned by property developers.
The letter complains about the threat from 100 new septic tanks discharging effluent in the area, growing parking problems and road safety issues.
The 35 non-indigenous villagers wrote, “If the Heung Yee Kuk and the rural committees continue to treat non-indigenous villagers with contempt and to totally ignore their views, there is likely to be an increasing divide, which will benefit no-one.”
THE CHAIR OF THE SAI KUNG NORTH RURAL COMMITTEE RESPONDED WITH THIS LETTER April 4, 2015 Excerpts:
The primary function of the rural committee is to protect the rights of the indigenous population, although with the passage of time we welcome other people into the village as friends and neighbours.
We hate to use the word outsiders but in reality that is what you are. You don’t have the same sense of belonging like indigenous people.
Why do you think building more houses will turn Hoi Ha to ruin. This is selfishness on your part.
The ancestors of Hoi Ha…were more environmentally minded than you outsiders. They made Hoi Ha what it is today. You have much to learn from them… they have been doing it for generations.
We believe it is the outsiders who are out of touch with reality, they ignore the traditional rights of the indigenous population.
We are quite happy to live with outsiders as friends and neighbours. That is the way it should be.
The chairman complained about the rights of indigenous villagers being stripped away. We are going to fight with the Government first in the court of law and other avenues when the need arises. We have a big fight ahead. We are fighting for survival.
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