People

Frustrated Tai Pan mulls ending legislator role

by Johnny Lee

Former vocal radio talk show host Albert Cheng King-hon was hopeful that his new platform as a lawmaker could make his voice heard when he went off air three years ago. But today, Mr Cheng is so frustrated about his little achievement that he says he has no plan to stand for re-election in the Legislative Council polls next year.

“Being a talk show host, you are committed to do something. Being a legislator, you are committed to do nothing,” he said.

“If you ask me today, I am not intended to run for the Legislative Council again,” said the legislator who will turn 61 in July.

Mr Cheng, nicknamed “Tai Pan”, was a host of Commercial Radio’s phone-in programme Teacup in a Storm before he was elected to the legislature in 2004. The programme, which was aired from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., was so popular that it earned Mr Cheng the name “the chief executive before 10”.
But the voice of the former popular radio host is rarely heard in the electronic media after he has become a legislator, a job that he said he had not done well and was probably not suitable for him.

“I am frustrated...This job is not for me. (If) you are a politician, you have to fight for sound bites, get your picture on the newspaper, but I am not that kind of people,” he said.

But Mr Cheng was buoyant about his new role in Legco when he won a directly elected seat in the Kowloon East constituency after his resignation from the radio job on the grounds of political pressure in May 2004. He thought that being a lawmaker was “the only platform to speak up again” after he went off air.

Mission: fight for grass roots

Fighting for the grass roots is one of his many missions upon joining Legco. He said the underprivileged were always being neglected. But his support for the grass roots against the listing of the Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Link REIT) has made him a target of many pointing fingers.

The controversy started with the government’s plan to privatise the shopping malls and car parks of the Housing Authority in 2004. But the plan was derailed by a legal challenge from a public housing tenant, Lo Siu-lan, who was worried that the shopping malls managed by Link REIT would raise the retail prices after the listing.

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