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Mary Ann Benitez

The rise of Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong was nothing if not spectacular.

He was a trailblazer among his peers, tackling hepatitis B and HIV/Aids before serving as Hospital Authority chief and health minister.

That was until Sars.

Little more than 12 months  after last year's tragic outbreak, his glittering career seems to be in tatters.

Malaysian-Chinese Dr Yeoh, 58, came from a large family and has told media friends countless times his cousin is  Michelle Yeoh  of  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame.

An immaculate dresser, he  appears  in a suit, matching tie and pocket handkerchief. The confirmed bachelor has said he keeps fit and healthy by swimming each night in his pool.

A brilliant but precocious boy, he attended the best  schools in Malaysia, but for medical education, he chose the University of Hong Kong. He had to learn Cantonese quickly.

After medical school, he joined the Hong Kong civil service as an intern in 1971 and became a consultant eight years later at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, then under the Medical and Health Department.

He was Hong Kong's first Aids consultant, in charge of the HIV programme in 1984,  firmly putting Aids on top of the government's health priorities.

Then he  prepared the city for a universal hepatitis B vaccination programme when the  department was trying to raise awareness.

Before the Hospital Authority was set up, Dr Yeoh was also a leading official of the Government Doctors' Association,  working under  chairman  William Ho Shiu-wei.

When the  authority was set up in December 1990, he was part of a triumvirate of appointed directors.  By 1994, he was  the first Hospital Authority chief executive  with a budget of $30 billion a year, managing 44 hospitals and about 50,000 staff. His annual salary: $4.5 million  - excluding up to $750,000 in performance-related pay.

Under his direction, a  revamp programme began,  changing the face of the public hospital system.

In 1999, it was time for  another career move -  back to the civil service as  health and welfare secretary. In 2002 he accepted a pay cut to continue the job under Tung Chee-hwa's  'accountability system'. He chose  former unionist colleague Dr Ho as his successor at the authority.

The circle was complete, but detractors said his influence still permeated the authority.  It was not without basis that he was called 'the kingmaker' and the authority his 'kingdom'.

There was also some unease  over his decision to return  to the bureau. Some felt he took the job to  make sure  the Harvard report on reforming health-care financing did not go ahead. As the authority's chief executive he had opposed the report's suggestion it be disbanded and that health-care financing 'follow the patient'. Critics also attacked Dr Yeoh's push to cut Comprehensive Social Security Assistance. He  lost his cool in February last year when he criticised legislators, asking if they thought money grew on trees.

In Legco's  public hearings into Sars, he did not come over  well when he portrayed former health director Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun  as the  medical adviser who should have proposed control measures to him. Dr Yeoh also insisted Mr  Tung  was in charge of the overall  response.

Sars proved to be Dr Yeoh's Waterloo. His verbosity turned the media off. His  talking off the cuff, when asked whether there was already a community outbreak, confused people.

For all his garrulousness, he refused to utter the 'R' word.

That is, until yesterday.



The clever boy who rose to the top but could not rise to his biggest challenge