A man who sees it as his duty to serve

Fresh from escaping his own political maelstrom, Bernard Chan spoke last week about the kind of governance he thinks Hong Kong needs. A handful of concepts kept popping up - most of them at odds with the confrontational atmosphere that has defined local politics in recent days.

According to the 47-year-old, who was chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board until last week, the way forward for Hong Kong lies in the building of trust between the ruling elite and their subjects, a consensus among different segments of society, and for whoever is in power to connect with their detractors.

'I'm quite confident the next administration will be quite a decisive government - but engagement is also very important,' says the former executive councillor and lawmaker, who has been dubbed the 'king of public duty' because of the numerous positions he has held on a wide range of statutory and other bodies over the past 10 years.

'Even if you're right, you have to convince people it's the case,' he says. 'You can't just say, 'I know better than you, I know this is good for you'. You can't do that in a place where a civil society is in place. Well, you can do that in Singapore, but in Hong Kong you can't.'

The self-proclaimed compromise-broker was speaking from experience, just after announcing his intention to step down as chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board - an endgame to the furore fuelled by Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's high-handed approach to securing approval for her proposal to redevelop the west wing of the former central government offices.

Chan says he resigned partly because of media insinuations about him being too chummy with Lam. 'But that's because of my personality. I'm not the kind of person who will come out and fire massive broadsides at the government,' he explains with a sigh. 'I won't do something like that.

'But will I argue with the government behind closed doors? Of course I will! For example, I've told Carrie she should never, ever consider selling [the west wing land]. But I did it away from the limelight, and not in public - that's not my style.'