'Good' trumps 'right', says Abraham Razack of property fight
Abraham Razack, the real estate moguls' man in Legco, is gearing up for a battle over the government's market cooling rules
The Legislative Council's summer recess has not necessarily been a time of rest. Some have taken the chance to take sponsored official trips; others have been busy meeting with voters to shore up support; opposition figures have been limbering up for the new term. They have been joined by an unlikely bedfellow.
For real estate tycoons' representative Abraham Razack, it's been a busy summer preparing for a showdown with the government over property cooling measures. He is planning to table two amendments to its stamp duty bills to "plug the loopholes" once the session resumes next month.
It is unusual for a member of the pro-Beijing camp to challenge the government, and the top echelons were apparently alerted. Both Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah have already come out against any amendments that would make the measures "less spicy".
Razack, 68, who has been representing the interests of Hong Kong's property moguls since 2000, says: "I do it for my grandchildren. They, and all Hong Kong people, should be free to choose how they own their flats."
Measures imposed last year to curb speculation mean that all non-permanent residents who buy properties - and all companies - must pay a special tax equal to 15 per cent of a property's price on top of normal stamp duty.
One of the amendments Razack will propose is a tax refund to local corporate buyers after five years if their shareholders remain unchanged for three years.
Razack calls himself a "loose cannon" in the Beijing-loyalist camp who will "speak only for a reason". But critics say his proposed amendments are designed solely to defend the interests of those who control the market and that they would create more loopholes than they close.
Razack says: "I have no shame in representing my sector in real estate, but I won't sell my soul.
"I have never before seen government officials attacking an amendment they have not even read. Give me a fair fight and defeat me by a vote," he says.
Born in Macau in 1945, Razack, whose Chinese name is Shek Lai-him, spent years in the service of big business before moving into politics. He studied at Hong Kong's Queen's College and finished a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Sydney.
Returning to Hong Kong in the 1970s, when the city was full of opportunity, he worked as a part-time English teacher at a night school before starting a successful career in business. Starting out at Swire's shipping division, he later joined Oriental Overseas Container Line - the family firm of former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, whom Razack greatly admired during his time in office.
In the 1980s, Razack was commercial director of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp. He became deeply involved in housing and real estate issues when he was the chief executive for the Land Development Corp, the predecessor of the Urban Renewal Authority, from 1987 to 2000.
"Unlike the URA, the LDC did not spend public money," he says. "In a way, it was robbing the rich to feed the poor. I am still proud of how we rehoused elderly people from cage homes into private compartments with separate toilets and air-conditioning."
At the age of 55, Razack retired from his career in business and stepped into politics, representing the city's powerful property developers as a legislative councillor for the real estate and construction sector.
Backed by the big real estate tycoons, he won the functional constituency seat uncontested in three subsequent elections.
Over the years, he has been a member of several loose pro-business groupings, including the Breakfast Group and the Business and Professionals Alliance.
He is dismissive of the idea that big business and its interests dominate Hong Kong, saying: "Property developers always run their businesses within the rules. It's the government that sets the rules and if there is any hegemony, it is the government."
Razack says that in recent years the government has departed from the "traditional values that we were brought up with".
"You can bring in emergency measures," he says, referring to its property market cooling measures, "but that does not mean you can eat into the fundamental rights of citizens."
After 13 years in Legco, Razack says his fight against bureaucracy is an ongoing struggle.
"There's too much red tape in the name of 'goodness' and 'governance' that puts many people at a disadvantage," he says. "Someone has to do something about it."
Razack says he has been a Catholic since his youth. His name, Abraham, was given him by a nun.
He says his faith has made him aware of those less fortunate than himself.
He was a patron of a recent project by NGO Hong Kong Unison that helped ethnic minority students to pay exam fees.
"Disadvantaged children do not choose [to be born] in Hong Kong. Hong Kong chooses them," he says. "Putting them into mainstream schools is no different from dropping them by the roadside. Can we afford a little bit more affirmative effort to guide them, or at least help them to learn Chinese?"
Razack says he is most influenced by his mother, who turns 104 this year.
"She used to tell me that the perspective of 'right' or 'wrong' can change over time, but that 'good' or 'bad' never change," he says.
"What is good takes precedence over what is right in every decision I make."
A life in full
Abraham Razack or Abraham Shek Lai-him
Macau
68
Queen's College, Hong Kong
University of Sydney
Oriental Overseas Container Line
Commercial director, Kowloon-Canton Railway
Chief executive, Land Development Corp
Member of the Legislative Council, real estate and construction functional constituency, since 2000
