THERE can be few civil servants whose retirement is marked by a CD of love songs. Especially one who admits to ''terrifying'' her staff. But then Elizabeth Wong Chien Chi-lien, or Libby as friends and colleagues call her, has never been a conventional bureaucrat.
Due to step down this week from her post as Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Wong's straight-talking, confrontational approach is aeons away from that of the traditional mandarin. And it is one that has caused her peers to draw breath many times in her quarter century of government service.
''I don't spare words,'' she says, smiling, in her spacious Lower Albert Road office. ''I can either blow my top or not blow my top. It makes no difference whether you're upsetting people. The important thing is to fulfil a purpose to meet an objective.
''My staff tolerate my occasional rudeness. I tell it like it is. I don't believe in being dishonest.'' Mrs Wong was cautioned early in her career for not being a ''grey'' enough civil servant. She used to write funny minutes, she says, and refused to conform to the traditional bureaucratic mould.
Later in her career, she appeared to take pleasure in her reputation for being outspoken and even ''outrageous''. This is the woman who made headlines when she publicly asked who was telling her ''a bloody lie'' about nursing shortages, following conflicting reports which made her look dishonest.
Many, including Mrs Wong herself, believe her frankness is refreshing in a world of careful soundbites. But it is also an attitude that has got her into trouble and some feel it may be part of the reason she was not asked to stay on in her post. They quote an incident during the nurses' dispute earlier this year, in which Mrs Wong was threatened with a mass work-to-rule action over ''irresponsible remarks'' she was alleged to have made.