Dissatisfied with Amendment Approach, Social Workers Registration Board Member Resigns Chiu Wan Lam: Government Did Not Respect Profession’s Views, Elected Members Unlikely to Play a Role Again
不滿修例手法 社工局成員請辭 林昭寰：政府無尊重業界意見 民選者難再發揮
After Secretary for Labour and Welfare Sun Yuk-han strongly criticised the Social Workers Registration Board last month over “five failings”, the government swiftly proposed amendments to restructure it. The bill is expected to resume its second reading early next month. Chiu Wan Lam, an elected member of the board and a social work scholar, told this newspaper yesterday that he was disappointed with the approach to the amendments and had resigned the day before. He said the government was arrogant and had not respected the profession’s views, nor recognised the contributions of elected members, contrasting this with the tradition of mutual respect and cooperation between the government and the public in the past. He felt that following the board’s restructuring, it would have “not much independence” and that, “as a social work professional, there would not be much room to contribute”. Worried that it would very likely become a system without representation, he said: “I’m somewhat pessimistic, so I decided to leave.”
勞福局長孫玉菡上月狠批社工註冊局「5宗罪」後迅速提出修例改組，草案料下月初恢復二讀。社工註冊局民選成員、社工學者林昭寰（圖）昨向本報表示，他對今次修例方法失望，前日已請辭，稱政府傲慢和無尊重業界意見，也沒重視民選成員貢獻，有別於以往官民合作互相尊重的傳統。他有感註冊局改組後「無咩獨立性」，「作為社工專業無咩發揮的空間」，憂慮很大可能變成無代表性的制度，「我是有些悲觀，所以我決定離開」。