IT is tough being a new boy in the Legislative Council. Pity poor Bernard Charnwut Chan who dutifully sat to the end of two lengthy debates last Wednesday only to have his vote go unrecorded in one.
He had pressed the button to show his presence at the end of the controversial debate on speeding up democratic development, but thinking President Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai would speak again to ask members to vote, he sat patiently with his finger poised over the button while others simply went ahead and cast their ayes and noes.
At that point, braver men might have spoken out. Not the sensitive Mr Chan. The atmosphere had been 'too intimidating', and he kept his little mistake quiet.
That turned out to be a bigger mistake. He had to send out a press release the next day explaining what had happened, because all the Chinese press had reported him absent from the chamber.
Government public relations person and former journalist Brett Free was disturbed in his office one morning by the phone ringing off the hook. He took the call - only to discover it was his old cobbers from the Gold Coast Bulletin, down in Queensland.
' 'Ere mate,' came the familiar twang. 'We've got this great story about the Hong Kong police force and how they drummed an honourable officer out of the service . . .' or words to that effect. 'Just wanted to check it out. Mate, the guy says his name's Y. M. Khan.' Good old Yaqub, scourge of politicians and journalists in Hong Kong and London (and ardent admirer of the queen ever since she gave him a passport). Now he has decided to tell the rest of the world just how bad Hong Kong's Finest really are. Superintendent Khan, awarded the Colonial Police Special Constabulary Medal a mere 16 years after his sacking from the force, calls on the media in every city he visits. He gets great write-ups as a charming gentleman, venerable visitor, great tennis player, etc.