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Stephen Lam Sui-lung (Cantonese pronunciation: ; born 24 November 1955) was the
Chief Secretary for Administration The chief secretary for administration is the second-highest government official in Hong Kong, right after the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. When the chief executive is on leave, the chief secretary for administration will act on their behalf ...
of Hong Kong and
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs The secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs is the head of the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau in Government of Hong Kong, which is responsible for promoting the Basic Law of Hong Kong, Basic Law, constitutional affairs, elect ...
. Lam was born in Hong Kong attended Wah Yan College. He graduated from the
University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...
in 1978 and then began his public service career. During his early years in the civil service he attended the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
Law School, from which he graduated in 1983.


Career

Lam joined the Hong Kong government administrative service in October 1978. He held senior positions as Administrative Assistant to the Chief Secretary from 1989 to 1991. He was the Deputy Secretary for Constitutional Affairs from 1994 to 1996. He was the director of the
Hong Kong Handover Ceremony The handover ceremony of Hong Kong in 1997 officially marked the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the People's Republic of China. It was an internationally televised event with the ceremony ...
Co-ordination Office from 1996 to 1997.Gov.hk.
Mr Stephen Lam Sui-lung.
Retrieved 17 June 2009.
In this role he was appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
in the
Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the King's Official Birthday, reigning monarch's official birthday in each realm by granting various individuals appointment into Order (honour), national or Dynastic order of knighthood, dy ...
of 1997. After the
transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony, which began in 1841. Hong Kong was established as a specia ...
to the People's Republic of China, he was the Director of Administration and Development in the Hong Kong Department of Justice. From July 2002 to September 2011 he was Secretary for Constitutional Affairs. Lam then replaced Henry Tang as the Chief Secretary for Administration, with nine months of the term remaining, due to Tang's resignation from the post in advance of his expected trot to the Chief Executiveship. Lam has enjoyed the lowest popularity ratings among the three key secretaries – chief secretary, finance secretary and justice secretary – and in May 2012 scored 37.3 points out of 100.Phila Siu, (7 May 2012)
"Duty calls"
. ''The Standard'', page 1.
On 5 and 6 June 2009, Lam met with Fu Don-cheng (傅棟成),
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
's
Mainland Affairs Council The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is a cabinet-level administrative agency under the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The MAC is responsible for the planning, development, and implementation of the cross-strait relations p ...
deputy minister.The Standard HK.
The Standard.com
." ''Lam seals accord for closer ties with Taiwan.'' Retrieved 17 June 2009.
The meeting took place in
Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...
to improve cooperation between Hong Kong and Taiwan trade. He also met with
Lai Shin-yuan Lai Shin-yuan ( zh, t=賴幸媛, p=Lài Xìngyuán, born 9 November 1956) is a Taiwanese social scientist who served as minister of the Mainland Affairs Council from 2008 to 2012. Early life and education Lai was born in Taichung, Taiwan, on 9 N ...
, the Chairwoman of the MAC. Lam decided to leave politics upon the expiry of his term of office on 30 June 2012; He became the official with lowest opinion poll since HK SAR Government was established in 1997. After the end of his term, he went to the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
to study
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
and graduated after one year.


Criticism

In July 2007 during a
Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...
meeting, Lam was criticized by the pan-democrats for pocketing millions of dollars in government salary, while making no progress in constitutional development. Lam was dubbed “
Eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...
Lam” () and “human
recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...
” (). In 2011, his alleged "manipulation" of political development – in particular, the so-called "replacement mechanism" for filling vacancies in the Legislative Council caused by resignations, led to objections to his promotion to Chief Secretary, including a protest march of more than a thousand people, led by the
Civil Human Rights Front The Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) was an organisation that focused on the issues of Hong Kong politics and livelihood, affiliated with almost all pan-democratic camps in Hong Kong. It was founded on 13 September 2002 and disbanded on 15 Aug ...
."Protests demand Stephen Lam resign"
RTHK News, 10 October 2011


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lam, Stephen 1955 births Living people Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of London Members of Gray's Inn Government officials of Hong Kong Chief secretaries of Hong Kong Officers of the Order of the British Empire