Friday, October 21, 2005
Newly appointed Secretary for Justice
Headline from most of the newspapers today:
From humble Wan Chai roots to top of legal tree
The SAR's new legal affairs chief represents a classic Hong Kong story - the rise from the working class to the pinnacle of society.
Michael Ng
Friday, October 21, 2005
The SAR's new legal affairs chief represents a classic Hong Kong story - the rise from the working class to the pinnacle of society.
Newly appointed Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung is a 41-year-old senior counsel who came from a humble family that lived in a cubicle in Wan Chai during his childhood.
His father, Wong Kam-lit, retired a decade ago after working as a hawker selling ice cream outside the Peak Tram Terminal in Central since the 1960s. ......
...... But even when Wong junior graduated from Queen's College secondary school in Causeway Bay with outstanding results in 1983, few expected he would rise so far and so fast.
The turning point came when he received a scholarship from the present finance sector legislator and Bank of East Asia chairman David Li that sent him to Cambridge University in Britain to study law.
Wong returned home in 1987 as a barrister.
His mentors included Andrew Li, the SAR's chief justice, and Benjamin Yu, a senior counsel and younger brother of Article 45 Concern Group legislator Andrey Eu.
Although he developed a close relationship with many senior counsels during his 18 years of private practice, Wong kept a low profile in the legal profession while he served three separate terms on the council of the Hong Kong Bar Association.
He was appointed a senior counsel in 2002.
But the public know little of his political beliefs even though he was one of 850 lawyers who marched to the Court of Final Appeal on April 19 this year to oppose the SAR government's decision to request the National People's Congress Standing Committee interpret the Basic Law concerning the term of the chief executive.
As an election committee member representing the legal sub-sector, he also did not offer his nomination to his current boss Donald Tsang in the chief executive election in June. ......
it's cool to get a 41-yr-old 'young gun' to be one of the leaders in HK... however, what the hell he's to do w a "HK classic story"? Everyone seems to like somebody who is hard-working, excellent academic results, and possess a stellar career... but not many HKers receive scholarships to Cambridge rite? w the 'flooding' use of the term 'HK classic story' ... the HK govt may consider shooting a promo with all those 'successful HK stories' to replace their current 'flying dragon' symbol then..... uuurrrrgggggghhhhhhh =P
# posted by robii : 2:37 PM
