Opposition district councillors in Hong Kong say meeting with home affairs chief was failure

A group of Hong Kong opposition district councillors expressed deep disappointment over their first meeting with the home affairs chief on Thursday, saying his unresponsiveness would not help mend a worsening relationship with the community representatives.

Despite telling the councillors there would be regular communication, according to one participant, Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui Ying-wai later said he had no plans to meet them in future.

Ties between local councillors and the officials who supervise the community bodies have been deteriorating ever since the opposition camp secured a majority in 17 out of 18 district councils in elections last November.

The two sides have butted heads over what matters fall within the purview of district councillors, who have often added controversial topics to the agenda such as police handling of protesters, constitutional developments and the national security law. They have tried to form committees to follow up on the issues, which officials then refused to recognise. Some meetings have descended into slogan-chanting by the councillors and walkouts by government officials.

The city’s number 2 official, Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, told the officials in an internal circular in August they could leave the meetings if councillors used offensive language.

The 20 opposition representatives from the city’s 18 district councils have repeatedly requested to meet Tsui ever since he took office in April. But the much-anticipated sit-down yielded no progress, according to Ben Chung Kam-lun, chairman of the recently formed 18 District Councils Liaison.

The councillors pointed to the walkouts, as well as refusals to provide secretarial services and rejections of requests to form committees to follow up on hot-button issues.

Chung said such actions “deliberately diminished the functions of councils”, but Tsui was non-committal.

“[Tsui] has only told us that he would maintain regular communication with us, but he has been unresponsive to all our demands,” said Chung, also chairman of Sai Kung District Council.

But the secretary’s office later said he would not meet the councillors again, and he hoped they would focus more on livelihood issues.

According to the District Councils Ordinance, district council functions include advising the government on matters affecting the well-being of residents in the area, while a council may determine the duties of the public officer appointed as secretary.

Last month, Southern District council chairman Lo Kin-hei of the Democratic Party filed a judicial review against a government official who walked out of a council meeting set to debate the actions of the local police.

Paul Zimmerman, a Southern District councillor, urged the government to avoid limiting the agenda of the community bodies to local issues.

“There are many things to do in the communities, including fixing the economy. If you want to have more jobs … is that something within our responsibility?” Zimmerman said.