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The First-Term legislators of the SAR Government will be sworn in today. A survey conducted by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups found issues about economic development, labor protection and housing were the three hottest topics that young people wanted to discuss with legislators.
With respect to the area of youth affairs, around 36 per cent of young people expected the legislators to pay attention to the education of young people. In regard to youth problems, 20 per cent expected the legislators to give first priority to youth crime and juvenile delinquency.
The legislator that young people most wanted to meet was Martin Lee. Following in popularity were Emily Lau and Szeto Wah. Andrew Wong came in fourth, followed by Lee Cheuk-yan. The main reason why young people wanted to meet legislators was to express their support. The second reason was to express their views on the problems of Hong Kong.
This telephone survey was conducted from 15 to 18 June 1998. A total of 608 young people, aged 18 to 34, were successfully interviewed.
The survey found that around 60 per cent of young people had registered as voters for the 1998 Legislative Council Elections. Among them, slightly more than 76 per cent had exercised their right to vote on Election Day. The figure showed that young people were quite active and enthusiastic in fulfilling their civic duties.
The view of youth saw law making and policy examination as the two main functions of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. In assessing the ability of a legislator, more than 30 per cent of young people found that 'to serve Hong Kong and Hong Kong people' was the main criterion to be a legislator. Around 10 per cent believed that a legislator should have an ability to understand the needs of society. Only a very few of young people paid attention to individual competence.
Youth's confidence in legislators to come up with effective proposals to tackle the recent social problems was encouraging, with 54 per cent of young people holding this view. Respondents of a younger age were more positive in this regard than their counterparts of an older age. Around 31 per cent believed that the newly elected Legislative Council was a representative council. In evaluating the effectiveness of the Council in monitoring the SAR Government, around 31 per cent thought that the legislators could do the job effectively.
The Democratic Party, The Frontier and the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood emerged as the three most popular parties among young people. The Democratic Party scored 62.7 on a scale of 100 points, followed by The Frontier at 56.9. The Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood got 51.8. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong picked up 51.2, just 0.1 ahead of the Liberal Party. The survey also found that youth support of political parties had increased since the 1998 Elections. Perhaps it was because political parties had put aside their differences on politics, and had organized round-table meetings to discuss suggestions to tackle recent social problems, which helped increase people's support for the political parties.
The senior research officer of the Federation, Mr. Jacky Pang, concluded that young people generally did have some kind of expectation on youth education. In regard to youth's expectation of the quality of a legislator, young people paid attention to whether the legislator sincerely served Hong Kong and Hong Kong people. Young people also stressed the importance of being honest and responsible. Only a very few of young people paid attention to individual competencies, such as the ability to analyze problems, monitor the government or master languages. These responses showed that young people, in measuring the ability to be a legislator, tended to emphasize an individual's enthusiasm to serve Hong Kong, rather than an individual's competencies. In regards to issues that young people wanted to discuss with legislators, the issues about economics development, labor protection and housing concerned young people the most. These issues were directly connected with people's livelihood.
Youth Opinion
Polls No. 56
