Talks With District Councillors Fail To Break Ice

Pro-democracy district councillors have lamented that it would be even harder for them to work with the government on the way forward after their first meeting with the Secretary for Home Affairs failed to improve frayed ties.

The two sides have been at loggerheads since the pro-democracy camp won big in last year's election, highlighted by a series of walkouts by officials at District Council meetings, new government guidelines allowing them to do so when councillors are deemed to have breached the national security law or the Basic Law, as well as officials' refusal to allow protest-related matters to be put on the council's agenda.

On Thursday, pro-democracy councillors held their first meeting with home affairs chief Caspar Tsui. They said they were left disappointed after the two-hour session, insisting it failed to resolve their differences.

"The government didn't make any concrete point to improve the relationship with the DCs, so I think it would be more difficult in the future to work with the government," the group's convenor and chairman of the Sai Kung District Council Chung Kam-lun said.

The group, consisting mostly of council heads, said they raised issues such as the walkouts and the government's refusal to reimburse those who used their offices for the recent pan-democratic Legco election primaries.

They said Tsui did not address their demands or responded with non-answers.

They also said no further meeting is on the cards, with Tsui refusing to promise that they would meet regularly.

"The government's attitude towards DCs is not healthy because they did not face the demand of Hong Kong people," Chung said.

Seventeen of 18 of the city's District Councils are headed by pro-democracy politicians.