HK's 'grandfather of democracy' dies at 87

Ding Lik-kiu, veteran social activist and proponent of democratic reform, died in San Francisco on Tuesday, aged 87.

Born in Sarawak, in what is now Malaysia, in 1921, Dr Ding was remembered by his friends for championing the rights of the underprivileged and grooming a generation of social activists and political leaders.

He trained in medicine at Johns Hopkins University in the United States and became a missionary worker. He applied his medical skills to help drug addicts, men living in cage homes and other disadvantaged groups after migrating to Hong Kong in 1961.

The prominent physician, widely known as a reform-minded professional alongside urban councillors Elsie Tu and Brook Bernacchi in the 1960s and 1970s, was a champion of the underdog.

He was an advocate for methadone treatment for drug addicts. In 1971, a pilot project led by Dr Ding demonstrated the effect of reducing unemployment and criminality among drug addicts who received methadone treatment.

The fully fledged methadone outpatient programme was implemented in 1972 by the then Medical and Health Department.

Dr Ding was a prime mover in the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. In 1973, he blamed endemic corruption for Hong Kong's serious drug problem. 'One of the roots of the severity of the drug problem is corruption,' he said, adding that there could be no solution to the drug problem until corruption was ended.