Hong Kong district council election: 3 candidates from ethnic minority groups compete in coming poll to speak up for diversity

Also running in Yau Tsim Mong South are former newspaper editor Chris Ip Ngo-tung, 43, who is secretary general of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, community officer Haywood Guan Weixi, 32, and company director Rain To Shun-wing, 36.

Bangladesh-born Islam came to Hong Kong almost 20 years ago and has attracted attention with his Chinese name Sun Yat-sen, the same as China’s late revolutionary leader.

It was suggested to him by his Mandarin teacher when he acquired Chinese nationality about a decade ago, he said.

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Describing himself, Islam said: “I am very much a social worker type of person, a social activist type. If I find a problem somewhere, I always want to find a solution.”

His manifesto highlights the need for ethnic integration and political participation by ethnic minority communities, and calls for a review of the Race Discrimination Ordinance and public education on racial harmony.

Concerned about employers’ reluctance to hire those not fluent in Chinese, he said he knew a Bangladeshi who had a master’s degree in accounting but was working as a security guard because he could not speak the language.

“We need to find ways to give the right people the right positions,” he said.

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He acknowledged however that making policy changes was likely beyond the scope of district councillors’ powers.

The election is the first since the district poll was overhauled and the number of directly elected councillors was cut to 88.

Of the total 470 councillors, 176 will be elected by three area committees in each district, and 179 will be appointed by the city leader. The remaining 27 will be held by the chairs of rural committees.

Under the reform plan, district-level officials will have full control over the new councils’ agenda, in line with Beijing’s principle of having only “patriots” in charge.

Candidate Jimmy Singh is a co-founder of the Racial Integration Education and Welfare Association and has a track record of serving the city’s non-Chinese community.

He said he joined the New People’s Party led by veteran lawmaker and Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee earlier this year after being “given a chance” to contest the election.

“Joining a party is a platform. From that platform, you can help a lot of people,” Singh said. “Without the support from the party, there’s going to be a lack of many resources.”

He said talking to the right people made a difference and claimed that he suggested having ethnic minority care teams, an initiative announced by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his policy address in October.

“There are lots of things that can be done, but you really have to observe, see what deep-rooted problems are there and [tackle them] one by one, like killing a virus,” he said.

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Singh said elderly patients from ethnic minority communities who had trouble communicating in English or Chinese could be helped if public clinics and hospitals had assistants who could speak their respective languages.

His campaign materials have gone out in five languages – English, Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

Yau Tsim Mong South’s demographic is relatively diverse. Of the 114,316 residents surveyed in the 2021 census, 22,972 said they were not Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian or white.

Fellow contender Ilyas Mohammad, who is running as an independent, said contesting the poll without party support was harder than he anticipated.

He said he thought it was just a matter of printing a poster and making a few flags, but realised that campaigning was “a very tough job for me”.

The contender, who arrived from Pakistan as a teenager, is a member of the government’s Committee on the Promotion of Racial Harmony and was among the 1,500 electors who picked the chief executive last year.

Youth development is his top concern, and he supports more diversity in school admissions to open “good school places” to more ethnic minority students.

He maintained that language education was improving for younger members of the minority communities and said: “I think there’s no discrimination and I especially love Hong Kong.”

His main desire was to give back to the community, he said.

Though scarce, ethnic minority candidates have stood in previous district council elections.

Hong Kong’s chief imam, Mufti Muhammad Arshad, welcomed the participation of the three candidates this year and expected more members from ethnic minority communities would be appointed to the district councils.

He said the bodies remained a platform to address problems faced by all Hongkongers, including those less proficient in Chinese.

As for campaigning for the poll, he thought candidates could have made an effort to convey their messages in Chinese and English to better inform constituents, including those who could read Chinese.

“Diversity is beauty,” Arshad said. “Diversity will strengthen the foundation of Hong Kong’s unity.”

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Filipino Danilo Reyes, who has been in Hong Kong since 2005 and became eligible to vote in 2014, said ethnic minority voters tended to feel their vote did not matter as they were often sidelined in candidates’ electoral campaigns, but he always exercised his right to vote.

A resident of Lantau Island and voting in the Islands district constituency, he said he received bilingual campaign materials from candidates but doubted that they were concerned about ethnic minority voters.

“None have been able to articulate, connect and speak to issues that matter to us, and I’m not even sure if these candidates genuinely know our concerns,” said the visiting fellow at City University.

Reyes said he would vote “for candidates with a track record of looking into the interests of ethnic minorities” and if there was no one like that, he would choose someone who aligned closest with his personal values.

“Voting in elections in Hong Kong is not only about making candidates that we vote wins, but also about making the community, political leaders and others aware that we exist,” he said.