Arts and sport in attack on shake-up
Policy-makers are caught between a rock and a hard place with attacks from both the arts and sports sectors against proposed reform of the municipal services.
Some arts groups fear cultural indoctrination, while sports groups say the restructuring fails to address the problem.
The Legco panel on home affairs is expected to meet tomorrow to discuss the government report on the scrapping of the two elected municipal councils.
The councils will be wound up at the end of the year and replaced by a new bureaucracy to oversee culture, arts and sports activities.
A Culture and Heritage Commission will be appointed to advise on cultural policy, while the new department will share the role with the Sports Development Board to work out sports activities policy.
May Fung Mei-wah, the performing arts group Zuni Icosahedron's general manager, said: 'The commission is appointed. We are not confident if outside views can be heard.' Democrats also fear works of art the Government dislikes may be censored by the new department.
On the sports front, the Hong Kong China Rowing Association said letting the new department share the role with the Sports Development Board was an 'extremely serious policy mistake'.
In a paper submitted for panel discussion tomorrow, association president Robert Wilson said: 'It is the board's legal responsibility, under its ordinance, to devise policy for the development of sport and physical recreation for the entire community.
'The [new] department should not have any policy making responsibility.
'Its role should be to execute policy, not make policy, to provide services, not to determine what services are to be provided.'
