Wong Lam

Wong Lam OBE, JP
王霖
Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
In office 6 October 1976 – 7 August 1985
Appointed by	Sir Murray MacLehose
Personal details
Born	23 July 1919 British Hong Kong
Died	19 March 2016 (aged 96) Hong Kong
Alma mater	Ellis Kadoorie School

Wong Lam, OBE, JP (Chinese: 王霖; 23 July 1919 – 19 March 2016) was an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1976 to 1985 as the first member with grassroots background to serve on the council.

Early life and career

Wong was born in Hong Kong in 1919 and was educated at the Ellis Kadoorie School. At the age of 15, he moved to study in Guangzhou until the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. He returned to Hong Kong and joined the Kowloon Motor Bus as a conductor in 1937. He was later promoted to operations officer of the Kwun Tong Depot in 1966 to open up new routes in Kwun Tong, the new satellite town dominated by the mini-buses at the time. For that, he had to contact with the kaifong associations, the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, the Social Welfare Department and the police. From there he got to know many government officials, including Denis Bray who later became the Secretary for Home Affairs. He was asked for advices on the transportation issues in Kwun Tong and was invited to see Governor Sir Murray MacLehose for advices. He also became the public relations manager for the Kowloon Motor Bus.^[1]

Wong had also been chairman of the Mutual Aid Committee of the Wing Ying Mansion in Ho Man Tin and was appointed vice chairman of the Kwun Tong Industrial Area Committee. In 1973, he became member of the Mong Kok East Area Committee. He was also appointed by the government to the Fight Crime Committee in 1973 as one of the three unofficial members, and chairman of the Kwun Tong Road Safety Campaign Committee in 1974. In 1976, he was made Justice of the Peace.^[1]

Legislative Councillor

Wong was appointed unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong when Sir Murray MacLehose expanded the unofficial membership from 15 to 23 in 1976. He became the first with grassroots background to serve on the Legislative Council, along with labour representative Leung Tat-shing and church representative Rev. Patrick Terence McGovern. Unable to speak English, he was the first to be allowed to speak only in Chinese in the Legislative Council debate (the first to speak in Chinese in the Legislative Council was Sir Sze-yuen Chung) and the first to receive allowance for buying suits and hire assistants.^[2] During his service in the council, Wong mainly focused on transport and housing problems. He stepped down when the government introduced indirect elections in 1985.^[1] In 1978, he was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his public services.

In the famous Lobo's motion in 1984 on the Sino-British negotiation on the Hong Kong sovereignty, Wong supported the motion and advised the government "to remove the confidentiality of the Sino-British talks imposed." He also used stock exchange as an example to stress the importance of the retention of the underlying concept of freedom instead of "just the superficial elements pertaining to the status quo", he said the "speculation in stocks and shares is not important on the fact of it, what is important is the underlying concept, i.e. the freedom to raise capital and carry on transactions."^[3]

Later years and death

Wong was instrumental in assisting the development of education in his hometown Dongguan. He helped founding the Dongguan University of Technology in 1992. In 1990, he was made member of the Dongguan Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1996, he was made honorary citizen of Donggaun.^[4]

Wong's last public appearance was in December 2015 when he was invited to a banquet at the Legislative Council Complex with incumbent and former Legislative Councillors. He died on 19 March 2016 at the age of 96.^[5]

References

1. "前立法局元老王霖慨嘆 議員今不如昔". 香港成報. 2014-02-11.
2. 余若薇 (2009-12-23). "雅虎專欄 - 假如我是王霖".
3. "OFFICIAL REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS - Wednesday, 14 March 1984" (PDF). Hong Kong Legislative Council. p. 713.
4. "“老顽童”王霖". 广东侨网. 2004-02-16.
5. Fung, Owen (30 March 2016). "From bus conductor to lawmaker: First grass-roots councillor Wong Lam dies at age 96". South China Morning Post.