Transcript of SCMA's remarks at media session
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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Raymond Tam, after attending a radio programme this morning (April 8):
Reporter: Concerning the loss of the laptops, what do you think about why it is necessary to send letters ...because this involves a lot of public money?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: I think it is regrettable for such an incident to happen to start with, because no one would like to see two notebook computers being stolen, and the Police is sparing no effort in investigating into what has actually happened. But in terms of the affected data owners, meaning the 3.7 million Hong Kong voters, it is in accordance with the advice of the Privacy Commission (Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data) that in any case (which happens) in Hong Kong that is concerned with the possible loss of personal data, the affected data owners should be informed as soon as possible and as soon as practicable. And of course, we have two options. One is to make public announcements through media stand-ups and press releases. But I am afraid that given the size of the affected population, meaning 3.7 million voters, it is only fair and efficient that letters and emails be sent out to individual voters to let them have the first opportunity to know about the incident and the relevant mitigation measures that we are taking and the mitigation measures that they could take to protect themselves. So that is why letters and emails would have to be issued as soon as practicable.
Reporter: Regarding the (alleged) vote-rigging (in the IT sector), you were saying you were going to make evaluations and try to strengthen the qualifications of voters. How will these exactly be done?
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs: This depends on the policy review that I have asked my colleagues to start working on. At least there are two areas. One is about the IT sector. I would like them to review from the policy angle on three elements. First, the professional standard and qualification of possible voters; second is the representative organisations, whether they are up to the level of representation; and the third one is whether we should have a unified standard in approving the eligibility of voters. So the end result, I can envisage, is that scrutiny would be tightened and the size of voters for that particular sector, in the short run, could be reduced. But because the professional workers in that sector, its total amount is far more than the registered voters in the IT sector, so in the long run, after we have introduced such policy measures, we would still see increase in the voter size. But in the short run, there would be reduction. Another policy measure is about the address proof for changing personal particulars in terms of registered address for the District (Council) Election constituency voters. When they change their registered addresses, I would require them to give address proof. This will be discussed in the Legislative Council later this month.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, April 8, 2017
Issued at HKT 12:55
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