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Opinion | Don’t let Hong Kong district council election politics detract from the importance of community affairs
- Pro-democracy district councillors, having scored a sweeping victory, must not forget their fundamental responsibilities: to counsel the government on community affairs and ensure their constituents’ welfare needs are met
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Votes have been cast, and the ballots counted. Despite uncertainties over whether this year’s district council elections would take place, they went ahead on November 24 without incident, albeit under heavier security.
With anti-government protests into their sixth month, it was a politically charged set of elections, with pro-establishment candidates anxious about a backlash for supporting the extradition bill that triggered the protests. And indeed, pro-democracy candidates rode the wave of discontent to a landmark victory. The people have spoken.
Nevertheless, we should not forget the function of district councils: to counsel the government on local community affairs. There is no denying that district council elections are political, with district councillors accounting for 117 seats on the 1,200-seat Election Committee responsible for electing the city’s chief executive.
However, one must not lose sight of councillors’ fundamental responsibilities in dealing with matters affecting the welfare of their constituents.
District councils, known as district boards before 1997, are a relatively recent development in Hong Kong’s geopolitical landscape. With the direct election of all members (except some rural heads) only implemented in 1994, their significance as community welfare-centred institutions legitimised by universal suffrage should not be taken for granted or overlooked.
In the frontier days of the New Territories, district officers were one of the only links between the colonial government and local inhabitants. While Hong Kong is still a long way from being a Scandinavian-style welfare state, there was a time not so long ago when priority was accorded to effective administration of districts.
Justin Bong-Kwan is a practising barrister based in Hong Kong and a freelance writer.
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