Serving and former councillors among govt appointees
Several serving district councillors are among 179 people who have been appointed by the government to Hong Kong's district councils. A list of appointees, released on Tuesday, includes the serving chairmen of the Yuen Long and Islands councils, Wilson Shum and Randy Yu. The Liberal Party's Jeremy Young from Central and Western, the DAB's Nicole Lau from Sham Shui Po and Hui Tak-leung of the Federation of Trade Unions from Yau Tsim Mong are also serving members kept on by the administration.  Former councillors making a comeback include Scarlett Pong in Sha Tin, Rowena Wong and Chan Siu-tong of the Business and Professionals Alliance in Yau Tsim Mong and the DAB's Hung Lin-cham in Eastern. Dentist Eugene Chan and barrister Kacee Ting are among the professionals joining the councils. The government said the appointments were made based on merit. "All the 179 appointed members who are dedicated to serving the community will enhance the advisory and service functions of [the district councils]," a spokesman said. Pong, a pharmacist by profession who served for 12 years as a councillor before losing in the 2019 polls, said she was delighted to be appointed and would like to focus on health issues. "After Covid, there are quite a lot of health problems we have to face, like mental health wellness, which is quite important for children and adults," she told RTHK. Eugene Chan said he hopes he can connect with residents in a better way than his predecessors. "I'd definitely want to be able to, from the professional side of things, get more support from the residents, who have not been able to connect as well as I think they should with the councils. Because in the past, a lot of councillors were very busy with, in terms of election," he said. "District councillors have different modes to serve the councils. I feel there'll be a different way, a new approach, which I'm looking forward to myself." On Sunday, the public chose 88 councillors, while another 176 were picked by government-appointed members of three local bodies. There are also 27 ex-officio members, for a total of 470.