Alan Leong Kah-kit
Legislative councilor Alan Leong Kah-kit is the leader of the Civic Party. A Senior Counsel and former chair of the Hong Kong Bar, he ran against Donald Tsang in the 2007 Chief Executive election and has become one of the politicians most closely associated with student leaders. He tells Yannie Chan about his hopes for the rule of law and the future of Hong Kong.
I wanted to be a doctor. I was told at the medical faculty booth that I had a 50-50 chance.
So I switched to do law. As fate would have it, both myself and my peers are in agreement that I make a better lawyer than a doctor.
When I was still practicing in the Magistrates’ Courts, on one occasion I was given a woman who had been prosecuted for shoplifting a bottle of shampoo at a Wellcome.
I took the magistrate on a site inspection. From the spot where the witness said he was standing, he could not see the shelf with the shampoo. My client got off because she was given the benefit of the doubt.
If you ask me, I was more than convinced that she did shoplift. About a month later, I went to the same magistracy. In comes this woman, prosecuted for having taken a bottle of hair conditioner without paying. She was caught red-handed.
The system somehow works out. Sooner or later you will be caught.