Here we have a barrister who is living in a time warp, who thinks it is the god-given right of the British to behave badly in 'colonies' and call it 'eccentricity', safe in the knowledge that the old-boy network will bail him out ('Bar chairman defends lawyers' right to pre-court drink', August 13).
And some expatriates, such as letter-writer Anna McLaughlin (August 13), are already coming out with the western 'psycho babble' that Roderick Murray needs 'help'. While the Bar Association chairman is defending the right of members to drink before going to court!
I am sure that these lawyers would not want to fly in a plane where the pilots defend their right to drink before flying. I know someone who needs 'help' more - the taxpayer, who is financing such individuals, and the poor of Hong Kong, who have psychiatric problems aplenty and no old boys network to bail them out.
Is it not time that the government broke this service monopoly, which appropriately calls itself the 'bar'? The bar is a cartel which fixes even the charges that its members ask for notarising a document. The so-called 'silks' charge up to half a million dollars a day to appear in court.
Meanwhile, so many poor people find that they cannot pay the 'legal' fee that they choose to represent themselves in court. At least they would turn up sober. If the government opens up the profession to American lawyers, who are willing to work on a contingency basis, and South Asian lawyers, who would be willing to do the low-end work, the economy would benefit immensely and the drunken lawyers can then use their own money to deal with their psychiatric problems.
The so-called 'rule of law' is another product of human services and is not mystical. If the old company, the Hong Kong Bar, that has delivered it is no longer competitive, then perhaps it is time to open up this service. After all, the end of one civilisation is not the end of all civilisation and the end of monopoly in such services as telecoms has enlarged choices for consumers and improved standards. Ditto the 'rule of law' industry.
N. BALAKRISHNAN, Kowloon Tong