Businessman Kenneth Lau faces big challenges in succeeding his father as Heung Yee Kuk chairman
Kenneth Lau takes over from his father, Lau Wong-fat, as Heung Yee Kuk chairman at a time when rural policies are being questioned
It seems impossible to write about him without first mentioning his father - rural patriarch Lau Wong-fat - whose tardiness in arriving at the Legislative Council for the political reform vote last Thursday triggered a bizarre walkout by 32 fellow progovernment lawmakers that eventually turned a historic vote into a farce.
The fact that so many lawmakers were willing to try such a tactic in a bid to deny a quorum so Lau could arrive for the vote perhaps spoke about the weight of the rural patriarch - affectionately called Uncle Fat by friends - in local political circles.
But businessman Kenneth Lau Ip-keung - better known as Uncle Fat's son - has pledged to make a difference in his new role as chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, the ageing rural body that his father had headed for the past 35 years.
First things first, he said he would like to polish up the public image of the kuk and that of his fellow indigenous villagers.
Kenneth Lau, 49, who took over from his father earlier this month, said he would like to listen to outsiders and get them involved in talks with the kuk to eliminate their misunderstandings about rural affairs.
[My father] is still a member and will continue taking part in kuk business
"I hope to see more communication with urban people to try to eliminate their misunderstanding [about us]," said Lau. "Some people do not quite understand the village people. Of course, there are also others who choose not to understand us.
"We may arrange some conferences and invite academics to exchange views," Lau told the .
Returned unopposed in an election on June 1, Lau will lead the 143-member kuk for the next four years, to be assisted by two rural elders - Cheung Hok-ming, 63, and Daniel Lam Wai-keung, 66, who were both re-elected uncontested.
The Heung Yee Kuk, formed in 1926, is a government-recognised advisory body that represents the interests of indigenous villagers in the New Territories. Indigenous villages are those communities that were already in existence in the area which became the New Territories after the British signed a 99-year lease for the land with the Qing dynasty government in 1898.
Today there are more than 600 indigenous villages.
Under the present political system, the kuk is given one seat in the Legislative Council. The senior Lau is the kuk's representative in the legislature. It also holds 26 seats on the Election Committee tasked with choosing the city's chief executive.
The chairmen of the 27 rural committees spread across the New Territories are also given seats on district councils.
In his inaugural speech, the new chairman pledged to protect the rights of indigenous residents and unite rural communities to face "challenges from outside".
He was referring to the lingering controversy over the so-called small-house policy, under which every adult male villager can apply to build a three-storey house on ancestral or government land bought for about two-thirds of the market value.
The kuk does not accept as legitimate the restrictions that the government has imposed on those houses, including limits on their size and conditions for qualification for a land grant.
The kuk considers building houses on villagers' land for descendants to be a traditional right protected by the Basic Law. But there have been increasing calls in society in recent years for the policy to be scrapped.
The younger Lau has remained largely low-profile in the city's political arena. He only drew media attention in 2010 when his father was pulled into a controversy over his failure to declare property transactions and commercial interests as required by his positions as a lawmaker and executive councillor.
He should first learn how to manage relations with his fellow elders in the kuk
Media reported that a company controlled by the younger Lau and his wife bought eight flats in the Yoho Midtown development in Yuen Long with his father's company on the day the government announced a series of measures to cool property prices. The younger Lau subsequently sold three of the flats before the transactions were completed, making a profit of HK$800,000.
At that time, the senior Lau said he was unaware of the deals, which were handled by his son.
Politically, the younger Lau is a member of the Business and Professionals Alliance, whose honorary chairman is his father. He was appointed a member of the country's top advisory body - the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - in 2013, after his father was not reappointed.
Between 2000 and 2011, he was an appointed member of Tuen Mun District Council.
Among racing enthusiasts, he is known as the owner of Real Specialist, which won the Chinese New Year Cup this year.
On May 28, days before the election of the new chairman, Uncle Fat broke the news in a letter to his kuk colleagues that he would step down from the top post, passing the chairmanship to his son. He cited poor health.
The news sent shockwaves through the rural community and outside of it. Uncle Fat said in a 2012 interview that he would not like his son to succeed him as kuk chairman for fear that "doing so will draw criticism that I am treating the kuk as a family endeavour".
The younger Lau stressed his independence, saying: "There is no question of me inheriting the chairmanship from [my father]. No, there is no such thing as succession. I am over 18 and I submitted the election form on my own."
But he maintained his father still had a role to play and he would consult him as needed.
"[My father] is still a kuk member and will continue taking part in kuk business ... I do not see it as him holding court from behind the scenes. But he has rich experience and it will be appropriate for any one of us in the kuk to seek his views when it is needed."
An expert in rural politics, Dr Bruce Kwong Kam-kwan, a co-investigator with the Hong Kong Transition Project - a research centre at Baptist University - said he was surprised by the senior Lau's departure from the kuk leadership.
"It is widely known that the kuk elders wanted Uncle Fat to stay for another term," said Kwong. "Perhaps his health has been worsening."
There have been reports that the senior Lau has been in and out of hospital in recent months, but the younger Lau said his father's health was fine.
Kwong said: "The young Lau is not expected to push for very big changes in the near future. He should first learn how to manage relations with his fellow elders in the kuk. That will not be an easy task."
KENNETH LAU IP-KEUNG
Age
49
Family
Married with three children
Education
London School of Economics (1989), majored in mathematics and statistics
Awards Medal of Honour (1999)
Career
Chairman of Yan Oi Tong charity (1998-99)
Tuen Mun District Council member (2000-2011)
Justice of the Peace (2002-present)
Environmental Campaign Committee member (2010-2012)
Heung Yee Kuk ex officio councillor and ex officio executive councillor (2007-2015)
Chairman of Heung Yee Kuk (June 2015)
