Lau Wong-fat

The Honourable Lau Wong-fat GBM, JP
劉皇發
Member of the Legislative Council
In office 8 October 2008 – 30 September 2016
Preceded by	Lam Wai-keung
Succeeded by	Kenneth Lau
Constituency	Heung Yee Kuk
In office 6 October 2004 – 16 July 2008
Preceded by	Ip Kwok-him
Succeeded by	Ip Kwok-him
Constituency	District Council
In office 2 July 1998 – 13 July 2004
Preceded by	New parliament
Succeeded by	Lam Wai-keung
Constituency	Heung Yee Kuk
In office 22 February 1997 – 8 April 1998 (Provisional Legislative Council)
Constituency	Rural
In office 9 October 1991 – 23 June 1997
Preceded by	New constituency
Succeeded by	abolished
Chairman of the Tuen Mun District Council
In office 6 January 2012 – 31 December 2015
Preceded by	Leung Kin-man
Succeeded by	Leung Kin-man
In office 1985 – 1 April 2011
Preceded by	Ricky C. C. Fung
Succeeded by	Leung Kin-man
Chairman of Heung Yee Kuk
In office 1 June 1980 – 31 May 2015
Preceded by	Wong Yuen-cheung
Succeeded by	Kenneth Lau
Non-official Member of the Executive Council
In office 21 January 2009 – 30 June 2012
Appointed by	Donald Tsang
Personal details
Born	15 October 1936 Hong Kong
Nationality	Chinese
Political party	Economic Synergy Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong[1]
Other political affiliations	Liberal Party (1993–2008) Federation for the Stability of Hong Kong (1991–93)
Spouse(s)	Lau Ng Mui-chu
Children	Kenneth Lau
Residence	Hong Kong
Alma mater	Ling Shan College
Occupation	Legislative Councillor
Religion	Buddhism

Lau Wong-fat
Traditional Chinese	劉皇發
Simplified Chinese	刘皇发
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Liú Huáng fā Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Làuh Wòhng faat Jyutping Lau^4 Wong^4 faat^3

Lau Wong-fat, GBM, JP (Chinese: 劉皇發, born 15 October 1936 in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong) is a former member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, representing the Heung Yee Kuk constituency. He was a member of Hong Kong Executive Council and chairman of the powerful Heung Yee Kuk, which represents the interests of the New Territories establishment. He was also the chairman of Tuen Mun District Council.^[2]

This political strength in rural Hong Kong has been morphed into power centrally and with the Beijing government. He earned his prestige by fighting for the New Territories indigenous interests by insert an article in the Hong Kong Basic Law to ensure their privileges remained protected after Hong Kong's handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 when he was a member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee.^[3] For this, together with his extensive ownership of land and property, he is known as the "King of the New Territories" (新界王) or the "Land Emperor of the New Territories" (新界土皇帝).^[4] Billionaire^[5] Lau is politically identified as part of the pro-Beijing camp. He is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and has a close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.

New Territories politics

At the age of 22, Lau was selected by local villagers to be a representative of Tuen Mun, the youngest ever village leader. He became chairman of the Tuen Mun Rural Committee in 1970,^[6] a position he held for 41 years, until in April 2011 the committee amended its constitution to limit any chairman to no more than two four-year terms.^[7] However, he was re-elected as chairman of the rural committee in 2015.

His longstanding membership of the Rural Committee is as village representative for Lung Kwu Tan. For many years unopposed, in January 2011, he faced the village's approximately 600 voters, after a challenge following the controversy of his failure to disclose some of his property holdings. He and his ally won comfortably, with even the defeated young candidates claiming "I just want to learn things from Fat Shuk [Uncle Fat]."^[8]

As the rural committee chairman, Lau was automatically an ex-officio member of Tuen Mun District Council, and became its chairman in 1982. He briefly lost this position in April 2011 with his ousting from leadership of the Rural Committee. After failing to win a seat in the November 2011 District Council elections, and against protests by Rural Committee members and local villagers, he was directly appointed back to the council by Chief Executive Donald Tsang, and on 4 January 2012 was elected by District Councillors back into the post of council chairman.^[7][9]

In 1980 Lau became the chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, which represented established interests of all inhabitants in the New Territories, and had been elected to his ninth term in June 2011.^[5] This position is the core of his power.^[10] In May 2015, he stepped down as chairman and was succeeded by his son, Kenneth Lau Ip-keung.^[3]

In 1985, he was appointed to the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee, which was respoinsible for drafting the mini-constitution of Hong Kong in 1997. A key contribution of him was his fight to insert an article in the Basic Law to ensure indigenous interests remained protected after Hong Kong’s handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.^[3]

Hong Kong politics

In 1985 Lau became a member of the Regional Council and member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong through the Rural functional constituency and held the seat (including as a member of the Provisional Legislative Council, 1997–98) until 2004.^[5][11]

In the 2004 Legislative Council elections, he stood in the District Council functional constituency and won, with the help of mainland and pro-government forces. The reason for the move was to ensure that the seat vacated by Ip Kwok-him, a member of the DAB (then called the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong), was taken by a pro-government member. Another rural leader Daniel Lam took the kuk seat. A year later, Lau was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest honour the government can bestow on a member of the community.

There was then a further twist. So that Ip could run in the 2008 election in his former constituency (District Council), Lau stood for and of course re-won the Heung Yee Kuk seat. It was shortly afterwards, in January 2009, that Lau was appointed to Executive Council of Hong Kong by Chief Executive Donald Tsang, a predicted move that was seen as a reward for his co-operation.^[5]

Thus he was a member of the Legco, as well chairman of the Tuen Mun District Council, among his various other positions.

Lau's performance in Legco is considered one of the worst as he had not initiated a motion since 1998. His first motion was on 4 December 2013 against the incorporation of Tai Long Sai Wan into Country Park but was defeated.^[12]

Political record

In 2009 and 2010, Lau supported the disputed HK$66.9 billion funding of Express Rail, and advocated the controversial reform of methods for selecting the CE and LegCo.

He was at the centre of the declaration-of-interest scandal in 2010. However, Legco ultimately refrained from investigating Lau, for reasons that were never made public. This has caused some people believe that there was collusion between Lau and the government for mutual gain.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

In 2014, Lau was awarded top position in the no-show charts in his participation of the Legislative Council. His attendance rate at work has stirred up concern that he was actually deceased given his age. When finally on the rare occasions where he attended work and proven still to be alive, his response to his lack of appearance was very typical of his arrogant persona stating, "It's not a sin, is it?"

China politics

Lau is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.^[22]

Controversy

Quitting the Liberal Party

In September 2008, Selina Chow, the former chairwoman of Liberal Party, complained that Lau Wong Fat had been canvassing for the DAB's Cheung Hok-ming, her main competitor, and this led to her defeat in the Hong Kong legislative election, 2008. The Liberal Party's acting chairwoman, Miriam Lau, later confirmed that Lau Wong Fat had left the party.^[23]

Property disclosure incident

In October 2010, Lau was publicly criticised for his purchase of 19 properties in Yuen Long through companies linked to him after he failed to disclose at least some of the acquisitions to the council within the required 14 days.^[24][25] In a span of 10 days he revised his declared total ownership of land three times, bringing further criticism from leading figures such as Legco House Committee chairwoman Miriam Lau and deputy chairwoman of Legco's Committee on Members' Interests Emily Lau.^[26][27] His portfolio was later revealed to contain a large amount of land in Hong Kong with 724 plots of land and he was described as "a huge landlord" by Miriam Lau.^[6][28] He owns partly or in full the following:

Plots of land owned	Location[28]
521 plots	Tuen Mun
122 plots	North District
33 plots	Yuen Long
4 plots	islands near Hong Kong
2 plots	Tai Po
2 plots	Mainland China

Together with his family and through various companies, he owns 40 commercial and residential properties including houses and flats. Prior to October 2010 he registered only 337 plots of land.^[28] He failed to declare the purchases of three houses in Yuen Long in April and 16 flats in Yoho Midtown through Carofaith Investment, in which he holds 40% stake.^[28] Another company controlled by his son Kenneth Lau Ip-keung and Lau's daughter-in-law also bought eight flats in Yoho. His son sold three of them making a profit of HK$800,000 at a time when the government was trying to cool real estate property prices in 2010.^[28]

Litigation

In June 2012, the Hong Kong press reported that an indigenous inhabitant (原居民) of the indigenous village known as "San Tin Village (新田村)" in Yuen Long of the New Territories of Hong Kong by the name of Man Yuk Moon (文玉滿) had commenced civil proceedings (HCA 1012 / 2012) against Mr Lau Wong Fat at the High Court of Hong Kong, claiming HK$5,870,000. According to the local press, Mr. Lau Wong Fat refused to comment on the issue when asked. He merely stated that the litigation had been passed to his lawyers for their further handling. The current status of this lawsuit is unclear.^[29][30]

Background and personal life

Lau's self-declared educational record is that he attended Ling Shan College (靈山中學) (possibly written 'Ling Saan High School') but the identity of this institution is not clear.^[2][31]

He is married to Ng Mui-chu, and has five children including Kenneth Lau Ip-keung, who is also a member of Tuen Mun District Council.^[31]

His business holdings are centred on his chairmanship of Wing Tung Yick (Holdings) Ltd.^[1]

Other positions, awards and recognition

In 1977, a new school was named after him: Lau Wong-fat secondary school in Kowloon.^[32][33]

Wong Chu Road, a major thoroughfare in Tuen Mun New Town linking Tuen Mun Road and the western part of the town, is named after him and his wife, Lau Ng Mui-chu. Tsing Shan Estate, the first public housing estate in Tuen Mun, was renamed San Fat Estate after him and Chan Yat-sen, another prominent figure in the Kuk.

He is an honorary court member of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.^[22]

In 1983, he succeeded Tang Yuek Fan as chairman of the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School.

Since 2004 he has represented Hong Kong to perform the Lunar New year kau cim ceremony, succeeding Patrick Ho in the role.^[34]

In 2005 he received the Grand Bauhinia Medal, Hong Kong's highest honour.^[22]

References

1. LAU Wong-fat – Legco biography
2. Legco.gov.hk. "97–98 legco memo.." Legco.gov.hk Retrieved on 9 October 2010.
3. Ng, Kang-chung (1 June 2015). "Heung Yee Kuk chairman steps into father's shoes saying he'll seek his advice". South China Morning Post.
4. Big5.ifeng.com. ""疑洩露樓市新政 香港“新界王”被調查" ifeng.com. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
5. Bridge Builder, Christine Loh, Civic Exchange
6. Baumag.com.hk. ""劉皇發膺“新界地王". Retrieved 9 October 2010.
7. "First change in decades for Tuen Mun", The Standard, 4 May 2011
8. "Lau holds village seat with election victory", The Standard, 24 January 2011
9. "Lau Wong-fat returns as DC chairman", The Standard, 5 January 2012
10. "Heung Yee Kuk remains Lau's turf", The Standard, 2 June 2011
11. Rthk.org. "新任行會成員劉皇發履歷". Rthk.org. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
12. "Voting Results" (PDF). Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
13. "劉皇發申報所有土地物業". Takungpao.com. 27 December 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
14. 立法會不設委員會查劉皇發
15. 劉皇發買樓漏申報. The Sun (in Chinese). Hong Kong. 28 September 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
16. "劉皇發，你當香港人傻的嗎？". Martinoei.wordpress.com. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
17. "全國政協副主席劉延東會見香港區議會主席訪京團". Big5.fmprc.gov.cn. 18 May 2005. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
18. "劉皇發：政改要得寸進尺". sina.com. 24 June 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
19. 劉皇發盼盡快解決高鐵爭議
20. "立法會議員監察 《2006－2007年度監察報告》". Retrieved 29 November 2011.
21. "民間考勤 功組議員表現差". epochtimes.com. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
22. Info.gov.hk. "Info.gov.hk." Chief Executive appoints new members to Executive Council. Retrieved on 9 October 2010.
23. "Lau Wong-fat quits Liberal Party". RTHK. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
24. "Lau Wong-fat admits failing to declare banned property deals", South China Morning Post, Tanna Chong, 28 September 2010
25. "Unfitting behaviour", SCMP, Albert Cheng, 2 October 2010
26. "Lau Wong-fat's portfolio grows bigger by the day", South China Morning Post
27. ""Lau Wong-fat says property deals will be accounted for"." South China Morning Post. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
28. South China Morning Post. ""Lau Wong-fat's portfolio grows bigger by the day"." South China Morning Post. Retrieved on 9 October 2010.
29. "指劉皇發違諾 原居民追587萬". Ming Pao (in Chinese). Retrieved 16 June 2012.
30. "劉皇發被追587萬「反口費」". 東方. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
31. Legco bio 1998–99
32. Lung Kong WFSL Lau Wong fat secondary school. "Lwfss.edu.hk." School intro. Retrieved on 9 October 2010.
33. Liberal Party Lau Wong Fat Archived 13 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
34. Sina.com. "港求得上籤今年繼續旺." Sina.com. Retrieved 9 October 2010.

External links

• List of positions held by Lau Wong-fat, Webb-site