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The
supported by careful and patient preparation. regular in-house meetings of Unofficials on Friday afternoons are the Occasions for planning these activities, when Members
when Members review everything that is of public interest, and decide which issues should be raised and how, including the questions to be asked and the motions to be debated.
The issues subsequently addressed are not related only to legislation, nor just to the work of the Council's committees, nor just to the particular of Members and their individual constituents. They are issues which affect the lives and well being of the broad mass of Hong Kong people. Into this category falls the work of recent ad hoc groups on nationality questions, broadcasting policy, a wide ranging investigation into sub-standard building materials employed in 26 public housing blocks and proposals for combating organized crime by triad groups.
The hallmark of this work is the care and the professionalism with which it is undertaken.
Not only do Members bring their Own time, expertise and experience to bear, but they are supported by their own full-time staff. In the case of the Unofficial Members these come from the Office of Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils (UMELCO).
The UMELCO staff of 135 officers under its Secretary General is organized into an Administrative Division (which includes an interpretation and translation unit and
and an information unit) a Members Division (which provides research support
support to Members) and a Complaints Division (which deals with complaints and representations from the public and refers them to Members). The staff is headed by a directorate which includes UMELCO's own, legal adviser.
The Official Members are also supported by their own staff. These are the civil servants who work in the Government's policy branches and departments. They are men and women from a wide variety of disciplines and professions and together they have accumulated an extensive experience in the machinery of goverment.
Whatever their role, Official or Unofficial, Members or supporting staff, those who work in Hong Kong's Legislative Council are Hong Kong people working for the good of Hong Kong. None of them is part of a separate elite, all of them share in the aspiration of Hong Kong people to live together in prosperity and stability under the auspices of a good and responsive government.