Why top Hong Kong civil servant quit – to return to singing, his first love
Raymond Young retired as permanent secretary for home affairs and took up singing and writing. He says he could no longer cope with the pressures of working in government in the age of social media
My family was not a musical family. When I was young, it was difficult to practise singing because we only had a tape recorder to listen to. I was lucky to have one at home because my sisters loved listening to music. When we wanted to practise a song, the only way was to play the tape and rewind it every time.
There was an opportunity for me to enter the entertainment industry 30 years ago. I’d just graduated and I took part in a singing contest, where Anita Mui was the champion. I was one of the 15 finalists but then, because the government offered me a job, I dropped out of the competition. Had I continued I might have made a career in the singing industry, but who knows? I didn’t have to support my parents, but my family wasn’t rich, and after going through university for three years and being offered this plum job as an administrative officer, who was I to refuse?
For 30 years I was with the government. As administrative officers, we were placed from post to post and I was involved in education and trade. I was also in charge of the office that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong [Special Administrative Region]. The whole community rallied together and there was this big ceremony where state leaders came down to Hong Kong to officiate – that was a very high-pressure job. I had nothing to do with the arts until 2010, when I was posted to the Home Affairs Bureau, which was responsible for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. They were responsible for artistic and cultural elements in Hong Kong, and that was how I became associated with the artistic community.
Hong Kong society has changed beyond recognition. When I joined the government it was a very consensual sort of governance. The mass media were not that developed and there wasn’t much controversy for them to sink their teeth into. Now, every day there are so many topics for them to grab at. At that time, the Legislative Council was a tame animal. The way we conduct public affairs has changed a lot. The government has become more accountable to the public, the press and to Legco. Now, whatever they do, they need to think through all the angles – how people might criticise a policy and how it can be implemented without causing arguments, how the press will report on it. It’s an important task and that’s why I retired, because I could no longer cope with it.