October 20, 2005

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The Slug Moves On

It has finally been reported today that Elsie Leung, Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice, has resigned and has been replaced by Wong Yan-Lung. I know little about Mr. Wong other than the fact that he is a well-respected member of the local legal community and a member of the Article 45 Concern group, but he has got to be better than Ms. Leung, the walking embarrassment to Hong Kong jurisprudence that lurched during her incredibly long 8-year tenure from one fiasco to the next. I find it somewhat amusing to rearrange the letters of her name to spell "Slug in Eel".

Lest we forget: she spearheaded the effort to obviate the need for a Court of (Semi-)Final Appeal early in Tung's tenure to reinterpret a ruling it made on 'Right of Abode' claimants in Hong Kong. She defended her decision not to prosecute Sally Aw, then owner of the Standard, for grossly defrauding the public and potential investors with totally fabricated circulation numbers, by saying that prosecuting the Tung crony would 'run the risk of losing jobs.' There's more but I think those two snippets will refresh your memory and hopefully your outrage. And yes, democracy in Hong Kong might help remove the tumor of incompetence faster and earlier from the local body politic, instead of Mr. Tung's 'ministerial' system.

Go on, Mr. Wong. You can do better. You'll clear that low bar as long as you've got a 2-inch vertical leap.

posted by HK Dave on 10.20.05 at 07:51 PM in the Hong Kong category.




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Comments:

Dave, tell us how you really feel.

I think her resignation is a loss. She made the others look good.

posted by: Simon on 10.20.05 at 09:36 PM [permalink]

What are you kidding, name any lawyer who is less competent than the Slug-in-Eel? :D All she had on her resume was handling divorce cases. Harriet Miers has much better credential than the Slug.

Hopefully HK is finally moving toward meritocracy, Singapore style.

Wong is one of the youngest QC (they changed the name after 1997, forgot what it is called now, Senior Council, sth like that) he got the highest number of A's in HKCEE among humanity students, while at the egalitarian school Queen's College. (his father sold icecream in a cart next to the peak tram entrance, a proletariet :) ) He got one of the most prestigeous scholarship to go to Cambridge, and supposed excelled there.

He is far from Lee Kuan Yew. But Secretary for Justice is a much less demanding job that Lee's.

posted by: sun bin on 10.21.05 at 01:05 AM [permalink]

SB, Mr Tung saw Hong Kong as a big family and a family lawyer was exactly what he needed.

posted by: LfC on 10.21.05 at 01:45 AM [permalink]

Gents, appreciate your comments. Simon, it will be tough to find someone as obviously in need of replacement.

Sun, thanks for the useful color on Mr. Wong's background. I'll take a technocrat over a divorce lawyer whose gut instinct seemed to lead her in the wrong direction every time any day of the week. In any case, someone that actually has respect for the rule of law seems a rather important prerequisite.

posted by: HK Dave on 10.21.05 at 09:28 AM [permalink]

I've managed to save up roughly $17006 in my bank account, but I'm not sure if I should buy a house or not. Do you think the market is stable or do you think that home prices will decrease by a lot?

posted by: Courtney Gidts on 11.17.05 at 02:08 AM [permalink]




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