ELSIE LEUNG Oi-sie, it seems, just can't say no. Having been reluctant to take the job of secretary for justice when first offered it in 1997, she has twice hoped her contract would not be extended, only to agree to stay on.
The 63-year-old solicitor now finds herself looking ahead to a second five years as the government's top lawyer.
'I thought that maybe at the end of the first term of government it would be a convenient time for me to step down,' she told the South China Morning Post this week. 'I was hoping the chief executive would find someone to take my place.'
Ms Leung said she had presented Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa with alternative candidates for the job and felt it may be better for someone new to take over. But it was not to be. 'Seeing that there was no one the government was comfortable with, I was holding on until the last minute. Then I agreed,' she said.
Ms Leung said she accepted, not for the first time, out of a sense of duty. 'When I first joined the government, I felt obliged to do so. I was born and brought up here so if the government needs my services I don't think I can say no.'
But she could be forgiven for wanting to escape. Ms Leung's first five years in charge were turbulent. In 1999, she survived a no-confidence motion in the Legislative Council over her decision not to prosecute tycoon Sally Aw Sian. Then she plunged straight into a fresh controversy over a request for Beijing to reinterpret right of abode laws.