Chairman of Professional Commons, Albert Lai
Albert Lai is one of the founding members of the Civic Party and the chairman of local think tank Professional Commons. A civil engineer, he has also been involved in heritage conservation and environmental protection for more than 30 years. He talks to June Ng about how he got into his profession and why Hong Kongers are so easy to rule.
I was born in Hong Kong. My family wasn’t very rich. We used to live in the Sham Shui Po and Shek Kip Mei area.
I immigrated to Australia and only came back in 1996, because Hong Kong offered opportunities—although it doesn’t offer much quality of life.
An accident inspired me to be a civil engineer. When I was young, a kid who lived nearby fell from the rooftop while he was playing. There were no metal fences guarding the area.
Many simple things can prevent tragedy from happening, and civil engineering is the most practical way to make the world better—we make tangible things.
I was the head of the student union in secondary school. The school had an air of freedom and students were encouraged to run the groups and activities they wanted to. The atmosphere was even better than that of universities.
I changed the process for electing the head of the student union from a non-direct to a direct election. Alan Leong, who also studied in my school, got elected the next term.