TO POLL or not to poll - that is the central question in the public row between a maverick group of arts community spokesmen and the Secretary for Recreation and Culture, James So Yiu-cho.
The battle, over how to staff the Arts Development Council (ADC), a funding and policy body with a $68-million annual budget, has been on the boil since October 1993 when the first working group was set up.
The artists want membership of the council to be by election. Any other approach, they argue, will turn the body into a government rubber stamp committee, and with 1997 looming, an elected council is more important than ever to protect them from censorship.
However, the time for debate is running out. The council is due to become a statutory body in April - but only if the two sides can reach a compromise before then. Last week, that seemed unlikely, with the row erupting into a public name calling session. The Economic Journal reported that Mr So had, in a choice Cantonese expression usually restricted to divorce negotiations, threatened to withdraw the statutory bill if the arts community insisted on elections.
In response, 11 artists' groups launched a letter campaign aimed at Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang and demanding Mr So's resignation.
But on Wednesday, Mr So finally met the artists and offered to allow them to select at least three ex-officio members out of a total membership of 16. Although it wants eight elected members, the opening of dialogue at least helped relieve the tension for the arts community.
'So is just afraid of the word 'election',' says Danny Yung Ning-tsun, council member and director of the Zuni Icosahedron theatre group, who balanced between the mavericks and Mr So when things reached rock bottom last week.
