Motion Debate on Legislating against Racial Discrimination

Madam President, 21 March is marked as "The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination". It aims at raising public awareness of racism. Hong Kong as an Asian world city has many people from all over the world coming for visits, studying, working or residing. There is no doubt that we need to strive to maintain racial harmony.

The Liberal Party believes that equal opportunity is an indispensable precondition to a fair and level playing field in Hong Kong. This, as our manifesto stresses, allows people to achieve their goal regardless of their race. Indeed, eliminating racism can enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong, uplift our international image and help demonstrate to the world that we are really a world cosmopolitan city.

We need to be concerned with the situation of racial discrimination in Hong Kong, although it is not serious by international standards and norms. As a step towards fulfiling our commitment to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, we were pleased to see the Race Relations Unit and the Committee on the Promotion of Racial Harmony being formed by the Government in June 2002 to promote racial harmony and anti-racial discrimination education among the public. Statistics show that racism enquiries were on the increase in recent years and had reached 203 cases in 2002. Of course, it might be due to the awareness of racism being enhanced, or perhaps the problem is worsening. Nevertheless, there is no room for complacency in our work against racism and its elimination.

Regarding the need for legislation against racism, the Home Affairs Bureau announced consultation findings in August last year, and it was found that the business sector was still divided on this matter. Some business organizations responded that the legislation would adversely affect their operations, while some responses from the business sector and non-governmental organizations were in favour of legislation.

Madam President, the Liberal Party today is not against the idea of legislation in Hong Kong. However, our concern lies with whether there might be any ill side effects on the business environment and whether there is any safeguard provision against abuse of the law. These were worries expressed by some business quarters. Indeed, according to some local chambers, business organizations fear that legislation might increase their cost of operation. Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) worry that their employment policy could be adversely affected if the provisions are not clear and that changing policy would induce administration cost. The burden could be heavy, as we do not really know whether and when the Hong Kong economy will improve in the coming years.

However, we think that the fears expressed by some of the local business organizations can be alleviated if we proceed with legislation carefully with widespread consultation among the public and the business community. Hong Kong's economy and success are much related to a free market, which should provide equal opportunity to each member of our society regardless of his race.

Finally, I would like to point out that we think the motion has some conceptual errors. The "new arrivals from the Mainland" share the same roots with most of us — they are ethnic Chinese, and by no means a minority race. I think that we should better distinguish between ethnic groups and ethnic minorities.

However, as I have said, the Liberal Party is against any form of discrimination against any sector, including new arrivals from the Mainland, or part of our society. Therefore, we urge the Government to adopt the recommendation of the relevant United Nations committees and introduce legislation against racial discrimination in order to safeguard the interests of all ethnic miniorities as well as ethnic groups.

Madam President, with these remarks, the Liberal Party supports the motion.