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The following is the transcript of the questions and answers at the media session (English portion) given by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, at the Central Government Offices this (January 12) afternoon:
Reporter: Would you have quit early if ...still working with Chris Patten?
Mrs Chan: I have already explained to you in my statement the reasons why I am going and the reasons are very, very simple, and I hope you will not speculate too much on why I am leaving. I am leaving for a very simple reason: because I feel that after over 38 years it is time for a change, it is time for me to move on and for new blood to move in. I am very confident that there are capable and committed officers within the civil service who can rise to the challenge and who will lead the civil service and provide able support for the Chief Executive.
I have also taken into account the situation on the ground. As I said, the situation today is very different from the situation 22 months ago when I accepted the Chief Executive's invitation to stay on.
So for all these reasons, I feel that I can now safely leave the civil service. I am leaving it in extremely capable hands and I am sure the Chief Executive is confident that he will continue to receive very strong support from his team of civil servants.
Reporter: For the benefit of our English-speaking viewers, can you tell us if you might be considering the possibility of running for the Chief Executive next year?
Mrs Chan: I want to make it abundantly clear I have no plans and no intention of running for the Chief Executive. I hope that is clear.
Reporter: Mrs Chan, what are the events or specific reasons to trigger your decision to leave at this point in time?
Mrs Chan: I don't think any one incident has triggered it. It is a decision that I have taken many months to make and the actual timing I did not decide until late last year. But I have always felt that as a civil servant, whether a senior civil servant or a junior civil servant, we are subject to the same rules and the rules on retirement, you are all very clear on. If it weren't for the exceptional circumstances pertaining in 1998-99, at the time when the Chief Executive asked me to stay on, I would have chosen to go at my normal age which was January 2000. But having regard to the circumstances, which I have outlined in my statement earlier on, I decided to accept this invitation to stay on. But, as I have also pointed out, things have moved on since then. The situation on the ground is much improved and I feel that I can safely, now, leave the civil service. I want to make way for new blood and I think it would be good for the next Chief Secretary to be in post by the time the second term Chief Executive assumes office on July 1, 2002.
Reporter: I would like to know, at this very poignant moment for you, when you think back over the last 38 years, what is your most fond memory?
Mrs Chan: My most fond memory. I think there are many fond memories. I have to say that at this moment it is a little difficult for me to identify one. I think what I would say is that I don't regret a single day that I have spent in the civil service, despite the ups and downs. There have been good times, there have been bad, but the civil service, as you know, has been my entire career. It has moulded my character - for the better, I hope - and I will never regret the decision I made in 1962, to, as it were, not pursue a career in the social work profession, but to join the civil service as a cadet officer, subsequently named as administrative officer. In the course of that, of course, I also became the Director of Social Welfare.
I think my fondest memory is the support and the teamwork of colleagues in the civil service, particularly in the grade that I belong to, the administrative service grade. We have been through thick and thin but the team has held together remarkably well, and this is a memory that I will treasure and will take with me when I leave.
Reporter: Do you feel that the pace of democratisation should be speeded-up in Hong Kong?
Mrs Chan: The pace of democratisation, as you know, there is a timetable laid down in the Basic Law and we are moving in accordance with that timetable. There is, of course, the question of what happens beyond the year 2007, and the whole question of how one moves from where we are to the ultimate objective of universal suffrage.
I have stated on several occasions that I believe the issues involved in this whole process are very complex issues and I very much hope that there will be an opportunity for the community to debate the issues, to debate the implications, the ramifications, so that hopefully at the end of the day we can forge a consensus as a basis to move forward.
Reporter: Should it be moving faster than it currently is?
Mrs Chan: I don't have anything to add to what I have already said.
Reporter: On the plans that the Chief Executive put forward for the reform of the civil service, how much of a role did that play in your decision to leave? Because you had said you would not do anything that was against your conscience. Well, this is an action that's coming forward.
Mrs Chan: The question of examining the accountability of principal officials has absolutely nothing to do with my decision to retire ahead of 30th June 2002. I have also stated, in reply to an earlier question, that in these three and a half years I have not been put in a position of having to take any action or to refrain from any action that goes against my conscience. I think that I am well satisfied, and I hope you are too, that Hong Kong remains an open, very tolerant society; there is a healthy respect for the rule of law and for all the freedoms that go with a civil society; the government is fully committed to faithfully implementing "one country, two systems" and Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong; and so I have no doubt that Hong Kong will continue to move from strength to strength.
Reporter: Have you consulted with the authorities in Beijing about your decision, or were they involved at all in the decision-making process? Did you inform them, and if so what was their response?
Mrs Chan: That isn't my responsibility. I believe that my responsibility is to put my decision before the Chief Executive and to seek his approval, which he has given. There is, of course, an agreed procedure that has to be followed under the Basic Law, and as the Chief Executive himself has pointed out, he has notified the Central Government authorities and they have agreed.
Reporter: Recently, a senior civil servant was in court in connection with irregularities in claiming housing benefit. I understand that this was a common practice among civil servants in the 1970s, a way of claiming benefit they weren't entitled to. Can you say whether this had any connection with your decision to retire?
Mrs Chan: No, absolutely none. I think the two things are totally separate.
Reporter: Mrs Chan, it may be that no matter how many times you say "personal reasons", it won't be believed. In part, perhaps, because there was a senior civil servant in the past who left citing personal reasons and we were later told someone was being technical with the truth. Is there anything that you can think of to tell us that will convince the public that your personal reasons rise beyond the technical?
Mrs Chan: I am not quite sure I get the......
Reporter: We were told once before in another case that someone left for personal reasons and then we were later told that that wasn't quite the case, someone was being technical with the truth. So I am offering you an opportunity to convince us that your are not being technical.
Mrs Chan: I think I have expanded. Yes, I have expanded on what these personal reasons are in the statement that I made earlier on, and these are the reasons. I would not leave the civil service if I thought I was not leaving it in good hands. But I am convinced I am leaving it in good hands, so I can go with peace of mind.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
End/ Friday, January 12, 2001
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