Councillors 'silently efficient'

Jamie Liu

District councillors were silent during meetings to avoid redundant remarks and save time to serve their communities, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak Mei-kuen said.

This came after media reported that after more than a year into their four-year tenure, 33 district councillors did not speak in 80 percent of their district council meetings, and among them, six remained silent in all of the meetings they attended last year.

Mak told reporters yesterday that district councillors or lawmakers do not wish to repeat what others have said as it is not an efficient use of limited meeting time.

"For a council with over 30 members, if everyone repeats the same points, it does not make efficient use of the meeting time. Speaking merely for the sake of speaking or to meet a numerical goal is certainly not what anyone wants to see," Mak said.

"Would you prefer councillors spend eight to nine hours a day in meetings, repeatedly speaking 'a thousand times' the same thing just to meet number goals, or to see them engaging more with the public?"