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SCMP Reporter

IN an interview early last year, Baroness Lydia Dunn was adamant: 'I have absolutely no plans to leave Hong Kong. I was born in Hong Kong.

  'My family is in Hong Kong.

   I was educated in Hong Kong, My husband's career is in Hong Kong.

  'In addition, we are both full of confidence in Hong Kong's future, so have absolutely no plans to leave.'   Even after it was revealed that February that she had spent $9 million buying a luxury house in Gloucestershire, in the heart of the English countryside, she was firm about her commitment to Hong Kong, the place on whose behalf she has travelled the world.

  'We have no plans to settle there,' she said, referring to her new property.

  Sixteen months later, Baroness Dunn has decided not only to quit politics, but also the territory in which she rose to influence and fame.

  Dubbed by some in the foreign media as the 'most powerful woman in Asia', over the past decade Baroness Dunn has played the role of Hong Kong's unofficial trade ambassador.

  When she was chairman of the Trade Development Council, she shuttled from London to New York, Amsterdam to Tokyo.

  She told the world why she remained confident over the fate of Hong Kong after the 1997 change of sovereignty.

  In the local political arena, Baroness Dunn was widely respected and described as one of our most influential politicians.

  And in spite of the sweeping changes both in the rules and in the players on the local political scene, she survived unscathed.

  Baroness Dunn has served four governors.

   She was appointed as a Legislative Council member in 1976 and an Executive Council member in 1982.

  She succeeded Sir Sze-yuen Chung as Senior Exco member in 1988.

  She was a popular figure in the territory, but many felt she lived in a different world.

  She made headlines when she broke into tears at a House of Common debate on Hong Kong after the June 4 crackdown.

   But, despite her Exco post and its undoubted influence, many feel that her political era is long gone.

  When she accepted the offer to become the first local Chinese to sit in the British House of Lords in 1990, it was interpreted by some observers as the first step towards bowing out of local politics.

  Many then believed that her departure from Exco before 1997 was just a matter of time.

   The future chief executive will have a different group of top advisers whom China can trust.

  Baroness Dunn's golden days in politics go back to the early 80s.

  It was then that the 1997 issue first became part of the territory's daily life, and handover part of its vocabulary.

  It was in 1983 that the-then Miss Dunn and two of her former colleagues took the first move to attempt to speak for Hong Kong.

  Miss Dunn, Sir Sze-yuen and Sir Guo-wei Lee paid a visit to Beijing and talked to senior leader Deng Xiaoping about the anxiety and fears of the community over the 1997 takeover.

  The trio was given a frosty reception in the Chinese capital and was lambasted as the mandarins of the departing colonial regime.

  The significance of the trip, however, lies in the fact that the territory's people began to assert their own identity in the arena of Sino-British politics.

  She sat on the newly-composed Legislative Council in 1985 as the Senior Member, trying to pull together a more diverse group of legislators to develop a new phase of 'consensus politics'.

  Her political career took another turn following the appointment of former Conservative Party chairman Chris Patten as Governor, the territory's 28th and probably the last, in 1992.

  Baroness Dunn and her Exco colleagues resigned, so that Mr Patten was able to start afresh in putting together a team of top advisers.

  Only Baroness Dunn returned.

  Although her re-appointment was described as a move to maintain continuity, it is clear that old-time politicians who have intimate links with the United Kingdom are leaving the political scene.

  While Baroness Dunn remains one of the best-known local leaders in the international community, she has inevitably begun to wind down her political career over the past few years.

  Speculation was also rife that she was not on good terms with Mr Patten over his confrontational approach in dealing with China over political and other reforms.

  Her close links with the Patten administration have eventually become a political liability for the Swire Group, of which she is an executive, in their business dealings with the mainland.

  An insider close to the Governor, however, flatly denied this.

  'There's no evidence to support that.

   If that's the case, she would not have been rigorously defending government policy,' he said.

  The source said Baroness Dunn still had regular meetings with Mr Patten every Monday afternoon. There they exchange views on various issues and the government line.

  'In Exco, she's the hawk on the Court of Final Appeal [issue].

  'She's all for going ahead with the plan and not dragging out the issue or being painted into a corner by the Chinese side,' he said.

  Publicly, Baroness Dunn has rarely been drawn into controversy thanks to her expert political balancing act.

  She has been on constant alert to avoid political rows by making harsh statements that could antagonise others.

  Even on the political reform initiated by Mr Patten, she described China's unhappiness with it as 'understandable'.

  She also expressed 'regret' at the divided opinions within Hong Kong on the issue.

  While calling for dialogue between the Chinese Government and Mr Patten, Baroness Dunn appears to be more sympathetic to China's uncompromising stance.

  'It's easy for many in Hong Kong to point the finger at China but it's a two-way street.

  'You can only build a real working relationship by understanding the other side's viewpoints and sensitivities,' she said.

  It appears that her remarks were also targeted at Mr Patten, who has often been criticised for his lack of understanding of Chinese politics and mainland ways.

  Having been in politics for so long, Baroness Dunn could find herself at a loss in the new political landscape, in spite of her enormous pool of experience and inside knowledge of government decisions.

  Branded by China as pro-British, it is inconceivable that she would be given a role to play in the government of the future Special Administrative Region, nor a part as a conduit between the two sovereigns.

  A self-styled, if not old-style, politician whose political and economic career has been conspicuously restrained in style, Baroness Dunn might find the new political circumstances unpalatable, especially with 1997 on the horizon.

  Her departure from politics marks the end of a chapter in the territory's colonial political system.



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Lydia is done