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South China Morning Post
THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1972
Hongkong just
isn't interested
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The dismal results of Government's campaign to enroll voters for Urban Council elections is a fair answer to those advocates of “democracy” (that misused word and misunderstood practice!) and internal self-rule.
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Hongkong just isn't interested. And important, since the Urban Council franchise covers those who consider themselves the intellectually elite of Hongkong society, it is they who have given the thumbs down sign.
Some 300,000 people are presently eligible to vote in the Council election. Only 23,000 are actually enrolled, and usually only a third turns up to vote at an election.
A costly registration campaign has been mounted to get more people interested, but it has so far drawn a shockingly low 3,000 new enrolments.
This is a miserable response no matter how it is viewed and it can only be interpreted as a sign of the electorate's massive indifference to its municipal responsibilities.
Nor are the reasons hard to find, although in mounting its campaign Government ignored the real issues in favour of an appeal to the individual's sense of community spirit and obligation.
"Help run your city" said the slogan but plainly very few are interested.
A major reason for this unconcern is the limited franchise and the restricted scope of the Council's affairs. Another is the Council's inability to bring any real influence to bear on Government in matters of importance to the community.
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Not even the vaunted White Paper does very much to encourage residents to take an active interest in the Council and to participate however vicariously – in its delibrations.
Perhaps the present system has not been developed sufficiently to met Hongkong's requirements – for example, the Council is rarely seen to be immediately responsive to local demands for solutions to local problems.
The concept of selecting representatives by secret ballot is a very Western iden and it might have no appeal to Hongkong's newly urbanised, newly-sophisticated masses brought up in #1 different tradition of local government,
Obviously, a great deal more must be known about individual attitudes before any comprehensive scheme can be drawn up to improve the present situation.
The Urban Council has some important responsibilities to discharge and the people it serves should be more concerned about how and why it makes its decisions,
This is a task to which the Council itself could properly address itself.
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RECEIVED IN REGISTRY No.51
30 MAY 1972