Savvy political player Lau Kong-wah comes a long way since defecting from Hong Kong's pan-democrats

Incoming home affairs minister Lau Kong-wah is perhaps best remembered for defecting from the pan-democrats to the Beijing-loyalist camp the year after the handover.

His latest government appointment - raising him to the status of an official member of the Executive Council - could continue to irk some of his erstwhile pan-democratic allies.

The political manoeuvres of Lau, 55, have never failed to shock observers, like the time he joined Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's team as undersecretary for constitutional and mainland affairs after he lost the Legco election in 2012.

Pan-democratic lawmaker Frederick Fung Kin-kee was sceptical of Lau's posting to the Home Affairs Bureau, which allocates resources to district councils. "Lau is not familiar with culture or sports. He is strong in district networking," Fung said. "The appointment shows the government wants to forge a united front at the district level and support the pro-establishment camp in the district council elections."

Ip Kwok-him, a colleague of Lau in the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, said he did not agree Lau would favour Beijing loyalists in the November polls, because "once [Lau] takes the post, he would perform his duties impartially".

Lau began his political career as a Sha Tin district board member in 1985. After the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, he joined the United Democrats of Hong Kong, the predecessor of the Democratic Party. He quit the party after losing in the 1991 Legislative Council election, for which he also faced internal disciplinary action for attacking colleagues during his campaign.