Mr. Wu Kim Pan, despite being a Form 6 student, has been a Democratic Party member for some time and is a participant in gatherings commemorating the June Fourth Incident every year.
Influenced by politically active relatives, he started taking part in demonstrations in primary school.
“Some of my classmates support me,” he said, “but the majority regard political participation as ‘out of fashion’.”
Another cause of the inactive participation, according to Mr. Wu, is materialism.
Mr. Mak Hoi Wah, vice-chancellor of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements in China, shared similar views.
“Hong Kong people have long been apathetic to politics under the rules of the colonial government.
“Since they lacked the opportunity to participate in politics, they shifted their attention to improving their livelihood,” he said.
A lecturer in applied social studies at the City University of Hong Kong, Mr. Mak said that it was the social environment that discouraged students from participating.
“The uncertainty about the future discourages students from taking part,” said Mr. Mak.
Another reason for apathy was suggested by Miss Chan Yu, community organizer of the Ecumenical Grassroots Development Centre.
“Sometimes the general public may think that government officials have higher status, and so they have to respect the officers, even if their performance is dissatisfactory.
“Their eagerness for participation has declined because many believe that they can entirely rely on the elected councillors, who claim they can reflect public opinion to the government,” said Miss Chan. “They sometimes do not realize their rights to check the government because of a lack of civil education,” said she.
“However, in recent years, with the gradual development of representative government, the people’s political knowledge has slightly increased,” said Mr. Mak.
“Some protests, like the request for release of Chinese dissident Wei Jing Sheng organized by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements in China, can still arouse public awareness,” he said.
Mr. Simon Lau Sai Leung, senior research officer of the Democratic Party, agreed.
Said he: “It is stereotyping to regard Hong Kong people as politically apathetic,” Mr. Lau said.
Dr. Chan Kin Man is in the Department of Sociology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He said that it was too quick to jump to any conclusion merely by observing citizens’ levels of participation.
“Little visible participation is not equivalent to apathy. Some research in the 1970s showed that Hong Kong people were very aware of political issues.
“The problem is whether society has offered sufficient chances and channels for the public to participate.
“There may be other factors, like social control, that must be considered before drawing a conclusion,” said Dr. Chan.
“Moreover, the low participation rate may be due to people’s self-perception of being powerless,” he added.
Meanwhile, Miss Rose Wu Lo Sai, general secretary of Hong Kong Women’s Christian Council, thinks that the chances for women are especially insufficient.
“The traditional culture has made males dominate the political arena. Moreover, women nowadays are occupied by their jobs and housework and so do not have the time to talk about politics,” said she.
A common argument for the apathetic attitude of people is a persistently low voting rate ranging from 17 to 38 percent of eligible adults.
Mr. Mak said one contributing factor was the mechanism of the voting system.
Popularly elected candidates can get votes only in their respective constituencies. Hence, they are only equipped with limited representativeness of public opinion in government.
Dr. Chan, on the other hand, did not consider the low voting rate as something “bad”.
“It is true that many people do not think that voting is important, but actually the voting rate here is not that low.
“Moreover, a low voting rate sometimes means a stable society. If the rate is very high, it may mean that society is going through a dramatic change or that the people are very dissatisfied with the situation,” he said.
“The democratic developments are only in a transitional stage, and people need time to accept voting as part of their own culture,” said Mr. Lau of the Democratic Party.
“Perhaps low voter incentive is a result of their belief that Britain and China are the only decisionmakers. The future trend may be moving from voting for individuals to voting for parties.
“Political participation involves different scales, from voting, to candidate registration, and joining political parties. It is unnecessary for all people to be party members.
“In recent years, some active groups of various political ideologies have been keen to check the action of the government,” he said.
Since 1990, numerous political parties with different standpoints have emerged.
“The emergence of political parties stimulates the competitiveness of voting, because different parties have different supporters,” he said.
However, Miss Chan Yu had countervailing viewpoints on voting and political parties.
She said the low voting rate indicated that citizens, especially the grassroots, had no interest in voting, because they felt that the candidates only contacted them and showed concerns about their problems before the elections.
“They always fail to carry out their promises after being elected,” she said.
Similarly, she did not think the emergence of political parties could help encourage the political participation at the grassroots level.
“Grassroots organizations sometimes cannot find available resources to support their position in the discussion and formulation of government policy,” said Miss Chan.
Ms Wu Mei Lin, chairperson of the Hong Kong Women’s Workers’ Association, also was not optimistic about political parties’ contributions to participation of the general public.
“These political parties regard building up their credibility, but not working for the public, as their priority.
“The parties can get easy access to the media, and so people usually hear the parties’ voices rather than those grassroots organizations,” she said.
Dr. Chan also questioned parties’ degree of concern over the lower classes. She said that a party’s effect on people’s political participation depends on whether it gives concern to the living standards of most people, or only deals with elite members of society.
He also said a representative government might not necessarily truly represent a pluralistic society.
“There must be a good development of civil society at the community level. This is now lacking in our society.
“There has been an unhealthy tendency of institutional absorption of social conflicts through the councils in recent years.
“There should be all kinds of people taking part in defining problems in society. Yet, in Hong Kong the grassroots have weaker bargaining power in catching people’s attention to study their problems from their perspectives because compromise is a common institutional proceedings.
“So, in order to maintain an effective participation, grassroots organizations should preserve their own identity and keep a certain distance from politicians to avoid the risk of being exploited.”
Miss Chan agreed.
She said they use different approaches from the political parties’ when helping citizens to solve their problems.
“Sometimes we cooperate with political parties to supplement their insufficiency,” she said.
Concerning political participation after 1997, there are different opinions.
Miss Chan said that the background of some people would affect their incentives for political participation, especially after 1997.
“Some new immigrants from China have experienced the Mainland government’s rule and would not be confident with the future government.
“The general public may be more active in struggling for their rights only when they are aware that their rights are endangered,” she said.
Mr. Lau also said after 1997, the political commitments of Hong Kong people will increase because they will have more opportunities to communicate with the Chinese government directly.
“They must stand out to express their opinion to China in order to maintain a high degree of autonomy,” said he.
Despite this, grassroots organizations are still worried about their future.
“As community development is not allowed in the Mainland, we will have less space to develop after 1997,” said Miss Chan.
