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40 / Our Community

announced. gual version except a few
Amid the on-going protests triggered by The government in English/Chinese only in
the anti-extradition bill movement, on Sep- order to follow the market
tember 26, Lam had a face-to-face commu- should have done this a trend,” the bureau says in a
nity dialogue with Hong Kong citizens at long time ago written reply.
Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai. Yet, Rahman has just start-
protesters who are mostly young people re- ed her position for two
main discontented. Protests continue. weeks when she was in-
terviewed, but she has already observed
Come way too late some advantages of the MSSY. “I have ac-
Another member of the MSSY and an activist for eth- cess to politicians like Matthew Cheung
nic minorities’ rights issues in Hong Kong, Lamia Sreya Kin-chung (Chief Secretary for Adminis-
Rahman says it is too late for the government to engage tration) and Yeung Yun-hung (Secretary
the young people. “The government should have done for Education),” Rahman says. And she is
this (integrating youth in the government) a long time confident that the officials will incorpo-
ago,” she says. rate her advice in the policy, though she
Rahman joined the MSSY in Decem- reckons it might be a slow process.
ber 2018 and is now a member of the Rahman also points out there is still
Committee on the Promotion of Ra- a lack of sufficient young voices in the
cial Harmony. Rahman underwent a council that she is serving. Taking the
selection procedure which includes Committee on the Promotion of Racial
an application process, a group inter- Harmony as an example, other than the
view, and an individual interview. two MSSY participants, the rest of the
Lamia Sreya members are either government officials
Rahman Lack of Representativeness 9 % to 15 % or adults with professional experience.
Recalling the group interview, Rah- The government Therefore, Rahman thinks the Commit-
man is shocked to find herself to be the only ethnic mi- targets to raise tee cannot fully represent the younger
nority candidate. “People are having conversation about the proportion of generation of the ethnic minority.
youth members
us (ethnic minorities) but without us,” exclaims Rahman, aged 18 to 35 in
“they don’t even know about the problem.” the 2018 Policy More young voices
Address
It turns out that many of her friends who are also need to be heard
vocal in ethnic minorities issues are not aware of the 51 The government still has a long way
scheme. Rahman points out while there are promotions members to make the councils more youthful.
for the MSSY, most of the promotional materials such as were recruited in According to the 2018 Policy Address,
the MSSY out of
posters are in Chinese. It makes ethnic minorities diffi- 4,000 applicants the government targets to raise the pro-
cult to gain access to information. since the launch portion of youth members aged 18 to 35
of the scheme in
The Home Affairs Bureau is contacted upon the issue. 2017 from 9 per cent up to 15 per cent.
“Most of these publicity measures are delivered in bilin- President of YoungDAB, Noel Shih, is