Originally Posted by East_coast:
He had been in the game for 40+ years with most of it near the top. Building very close relationships with the Kwok brothers and others. He was not a naive civil servant. There is probably no doubt he could execute extremely well and towns such as ShaTin are a living legacy to his work. The stifling role of CE having to balance the 'needs' of Beijing with the 'wants' of of Hong Kong is somewhat of a poisoned chalice. He pushed the national education, and the very wasteful overly grand integration projects (mainland cities are littered with such trophy projects). He was a loyal man who could get things done (except KaiTak and WSCD)
No wonder he couldn't hold the smiles back in his first public outing in Hong Kong.
Many questioned left unanswered including what the 'I' stands for in ICAC...