Five face off for Hong Kong’s fiercely contested social welfare sector in coming elections

The social welfare sector has emerged as the most fiercely contested battleground among the functional constituencies this year with five aspirants vying for a seat in the legislature to represent some 21,000 social workers in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Social Workers’ General Union has endorsed its president Yip Kin-chung to run for the seat vacated by outgoing Labour Party lawmaker Peter Cheung Kwok-che, whom it previously backed, while Occupy sit-in activists Shiu Ka-chun and Ken Tsang Kin-chiu both hoped to keep the civil disobedience movement spirit alive by entering the Legislative Council.

Former lawmaker Nelson Wong Sing-chi, who was expelled by the Democratic Party last year, and retired academic Professor Alex Kwan Yui-huen also signed up for the race at the last minute.

Shiu, who lectures on social work at the Baptist University and hosted the nightly rally at Harcourt Road during the Occupy protests, admitted that Yip did enjoy the upper hand by having support from the union – the city’s most influential body among social workers – but argued that it was time to take a more progressive approach in the chamber.

“A lawmaker has not worked hard enough [when he] simply condemns his opponents for voting down the motion he tabled,” Shiu told the Post. “Instead, he should actively engage the sector and public to build up the momentum ahead of the vote … and eventually force other lawmakers to back it.”