THE PRESS TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 1978. Hong Kong corruption

Press, 11 April 1978, Page 16

THE PRESS TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 1978. Hong Kong corruption

The dismissal of the 118 police and a customs officer by the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose, as part of an anti-corruption drive should do something to restore the loss of confidence in the civil service in Hong Kong. It needs restoring. Violence and drug dealing in the community, and corruption in the civil service have been rampant. In the socalled “decade of terror’’ of 1964 to 1974. general crime more than trebled and violent crime expanded ninefold. Confidence in the police fell. Changes were introduced in 1973 which caused a drop in violent crime by 30 per cent and in other major crime by 13 per cent between 1974 and July of 1977.

Two incidents last year shook the slowly gaining confidence in the civil service. The first was concerned with a corrupt policeman. Peter Fitzroy Godber, who once served as chief superintendent of police in Hong Kong, and while a police officer acquired some 8HK4.1 million. He was convicted in 1973 after being sent back from Britain to where he had fled. Last year he was released after serving little more than 31 months of his four-year sentence. The Government provided him with an escort from the prison to the airport, put the Government Information Services at his disposal, waived airport regulations, and allowed him to hide from journalists in a government office. He left Hong Kong without refunding the SHK4.I million which the High Court ruled belonged to the Government.

The second incident was even more

closely related to the present administration of the police force. Police have bitterly resented the Independent Commission against Corruption. After police had stormed the commission’s office, Sir Murray MacLehose granted a partial amnesty to civil servants. The commission would, he said, not investigate practices which occurred before January of 1977. This severely limited the commission’s powers and made useless the work of its highly paid investigators who had been examining earlier years. It meant that many people, with crimes less than a year old, could go scot-free. Widespread criticism followed the Governor’s decision.

The dismissals are a welcome sign that Hong Kong has the will to continue with the drive against corruption. The head of the commission, Mr Jack Cater, at the beginning of last year, said that syndicated corruption still existed in various government departments. He estimated that at the height of the corruption activities, money taken by sjmdicates of corrupt civil servants amounted to BHKIOOO million a year. Sir Murray was, to some extent, the victim of circumstances over some of the moves. On the whole his administration leans towards the enlightened side and his reappointment last year was generally welcomed by the community. By the time his term ends in November he may have been able to introduce some of the welfare programmes he has proposed, and have given the community more confidence in the honesty of its civil service, which it sorely needs.