My Take | Bar Association is now a de facto political party
The professional body for barristers, under its new leadership, will be taking a much more active role in the political affairs of Hong Kong
The Bar Association has just had a coup. Breaching a long-standing, unwritten rule of having a chairman stay on the job for two years, Philip Dykes and his like-minded barrister friends have successfully challenged incumbent Paul Lam Ting-kwok.
Four of Dykes’ allies now sit on the board. These include top criminal lawyer Lawrence Lok Ying-kam and University of Hong Kong law professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, who is closely allied with Anson Chan Fang On-sang, the former chief-secretary-turned-pan-democratic icon.
Under Lam and his predecessor Winnie Tam Wan-chi, the association had been more neutral and nuanced in the way it dealt with political controversies involving the government and Beijing.
Impatient of Lam’s leadership and what he calls its delayed criticism of the joint checkpoint arrangement at the upcoming West Kowloon express rail terminus, Dykes and Co clearly prefer a politically active association. Expect a return to the “good old days” when an activist Bar Association was chaired by such card-carrying pan-democratic politicians as Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, Alan Leong Kah-kit and Ronny Tong Ka-wah; that is, before Tong jumped ship and joined the government.