I HAVE some disagreement with Bernard Cheng Cho-ming's letter regarding the new Secretary for Health and Welfare Katherine Fok Lo Shiu-ching's willingness to relinquish her British citizenship - or nationality - if necessary, to continue in her post after 1997.
Mr Cheng was incorrect in saying her British citizenship was an ''inconvenience''. I would say that the opposite is the case. Many Hong Kong Chinese, possibly even the hundreds of thousands Mr Cheng suggested, have obtained citizenship from other countries entirely as a matter of convenience.
In contradiction to the overall point of his letter, Mr Cheng further falls by referring to ''passports'', which is all they appear to be seen by these people and are even referred to in the media, the South China Morning Post included.
Citizenship is no small matter, as Mr Cheng rightly pointed out. This, no doubt, is why policy secretarial positions in the future SAR government, according to the Basic Law, are to be held by people with Chinese nationality.
In my opinion, Mr Cheng may very well be the only Hong Kong Chinese with some grasp of the concept of citizenship and nationality. His expression of this no doubt goes to waste in the English language media.
BRETT GRAHAM Sai Kung
