Reach out to hearts and minds of young
The national security law has helped bring order to Hong Kong’s streets since the chaos of the 2019 protests, but whether at the perceived cost of the city’s core values remains the subject of debate. Foremost among them has to be the rule of law, and the confidence in it that has been fundamental to the city’s success. It is worrying that a study by Youth IDEAS, a research centre under the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, has found many young people losing confidence in the rule of law. The results are based on a survey of just 529 respondents within the 20-year age span from 14 to 34. There is room for further research, but to simply dismiss the findings does not do justice to such an important value.
Youth IDEAS found that about seven in 10 young people have less confidence in the rule of law than before the social unrest, with
45 per cent saying they believed the government could now exert influence on the courts, and almost 80 per cent revealing they had less confidence in the police.
Results suggest that the divide between the establishment and young people that emerged during the 2014 Occupy protests has not narrowed, and sentiments underlying protest outbreaks some five years apart remain strong today. The question is what has been done about it. If the survey is to be believed, authorities may be mistaken in thinking the national security law has solved everything.
This issue is not new. All chief executives since the handover have talked about engaging with young people, without achieving much. There has been no lack of calls from many quarters over the years to improve the lot of youngsters, from better job opportunities, to greater representation, to listening to them at a grass-roots level and understanding their needs and concerns. But responses such as setting up a Youth Development Commission “to enhance policy coordination” and urging them to go north for a brighter future have not worked. Now it is even more critical for the government to reach out to the hearts and minds of the young.
The national security law may have helped bring order, but for the sake of the city’s future, and confidence in the rule of law, it is time to come to terms with the underlying sentiments behind dissent.