Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs of the HKSAR Government, Alice Mak, visited the LINK Centre, a support service center for ethnic minorities in Kwai Chung, yesterday (Nov. 5). She urged the center's staff, who are registered voters and ethnic minorities, to exercise their civic rights and fulfill their civic responsibilities by voting actively on the polling day of Dec. 7 to elect the new-term Legislative Council (LegCo) members.
Mak, along with several other officials, visited the to encourage their family and friends to vote together. The Home and Youth Affairs Team subsequently visited an ethnic minority household in the neighborhood with the LINK Centre's ethnic minority care team to encourage them to vote together on December 7.
LINK Centre Director Li Xueyi told Wen Wei Po in an interview yesterday (Nov. 5) that seeing government officials promote the LegCo election at the center made the ethnic minority community feel the importance of the election and understand its significance more clearly.
"The secretary's district visit to promote the LegCo election was very effective and made the ethnic minority community very happy," Li said. The bureau chief's personal involvement, coupled with the distribution of easy-to-understand promotional leaflets, was very helpful in promoting the election. She believes that the ethnic minority community will their relatives, friends, and people around them to participate in the vote together.
She added that the SAR government is making great efforts to promote the election. The center regularly releases election information through social media and its official website to remind ethnic minorities about the election time and polling stations. It also regularly sets up street stalls to promote the election and visits residents to publicize . "The center's staff also actively participate, for example, by helping with translation and providing support to facilitate the smooth conduct of election promotion."
Li noted that the LegCo election is a citizen's responsibility, and they take every election very seriously. They are currently carrying out various promotion and education activities, hoping to help the ethnic minority community better understand the significance of the election and encourage them to vote actively.
She believes that successfully elected legislators will participate in formulating policies that affect the lives of ethnic minorities. Therefore, ethnic minorities attach great importance to the election, paying particular attention to education and housing policies.
Li expressed their hope that the new-term LegCo members will better understand the needs of ethnic minorities and promote more policies to help them, thereby tangibly improving their lives.
"Some ethnic minorities are relatively unfamiliar with elections. Even if they are registered voters, they may not actively participate in voting." James Suen, program director of the Migrants Program at the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch, believes that this may be related to their sense of belonging to Hong Kong. There is a need to further strengthen promotion and enhance the sense of belonging among ethnic minorities, thereby increasing their motivation to participate in voting.
He added that because the ethnic minority community has a culture of rapid information spreading, "during this period, we continuously encourage them and provide them with more promotional information. We are confident in driving them to engage more in the election."
Regarding first-time voters, there is no concrete data yet, but he has noticed that young ethnic minorities are more proactive, which might be related to them growing up in Hong Kong, with thinking and living habits closer to locals.
"Most of these people are first-time voters and are more engaged in the election." He hopes that through the influence of the younger generation, older ethnic groups will also participate in the election.
Suen said they also convey the importance of the election to their respective communities through ethnic minority religious leaders, which proves more effective. "These community and religious group leaders are very supportive of the relevant work, making our promotion efforts smoother."
In addition to setting up street stalls and distributing promotional leaflets, Suen also collaborates with the SAR government and relevant organizations to hold seminars, arranging translators to assist communication and ensure ethnic minorities clearly understand the election process and related information. Subsequently, a series of promotional activities will be held to vigorously promote the importance of voting when ethnic minorities gather, strengthening their awareness of civic responsibility and encouraging them to participate in the vote.
(Source: Wen Wei Po; Journalist: Yim kai-wa)
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