Speech at the Graduation Ceremony of University of Aberdeen
on 12 January 2005
by
Dr. C.H. Leong, D.Sc.(Hon.)Aberdeen
 

          Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Principal, Honoured Guest, Ladies & Gentlemen

          Allow me to begin by expressing my sincere thank to you Sirs and the University of Aberdeen for affording me this singular honour. This honour is particular profound to me as it is conferred on me by the Chancellor, Lord Wilson. Lord Wilson was the Governor of Hong Kong and the President of the Legislative Council when I was elected into the local Legislature – the beginning of my life in public services. It was through the inspiration of Lord Wilson as the Governor, the guidance from him as the leader of the Legislative Council and as a personal friend that I began to learn of the trials and tribulations of public life, the integrity and accountability that those in the public service will have to commit and promulgate, and that to pledge to serve the public is not just a motto but a fully committed deed – a path I have followed on the past 16 years, and will continue to do so. Thank you Lord Chancellor. Thank you Lady Natashia Wilson.

          Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Principal, I stand here today proud as an Honourary Graduand of this grand University of some 600 years history, renown as a craddle of academia; yet I am totally humbled. Humbled by the fact that I really feel that I do not deserve the honour. The public orator in his over sumptuous citation stated that it is in recognition of my service during the outbreak of SARS, that the University do recognised. If that be the case then the honour should not be mine and mine alone. Instead it goes to all in the health care services in HK be it in the front line or the senior administration and policy formulation, be it in the private or public sectors who have been rubbing shoulders with me working selflessly during that 100 dark days of SARS and emerge a winner. Some of them are in the audience today. I salute them. Reference was also made to my work in promoting health care and community services in HK and medical training and education. Again these are in no way my personal endeavours, but were supported extensively by the whole health care profession, the Government of the day, the many non Government organizations, the two medical schools, the Fellows of the Academy of Medicine. Perhaps more importantly is the unfailing encouragement and support given to me and the medical community by the various international medical academies and colleges all the way from our infancy to maturation.

          My Lord, Mr. Chancellor, with your permission, it is on internationalization of medical education and perhaps internationalization of university education that I would like to say a few words more. When Britain return the sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, many would have thought that the subsequent role of Britain towards HK would be merely an overseer and her future interest in this SAR (Special Administrative Region) be just an economic one. This could not be the case, nor would it be the interest of HK, definitely not amongst the academia and the health care professions. For when the universities in HK in particular the HK University is moving towards internationalization, and the standard of medicine is measured by international peer assessment and accreditation, then collaboration or partnership with Britain epitomize the realization of internationalization of this “Asia’s World City”.

          Mr. Chancellor, I am given to understand that in the days to come the University of Aberdeen will be signing a memorandum of collaboration with the University of Hong Kong to be followed by a joint symposium on medically related topics. This is exciting and must be welcome by both sides for it further strengthens the bondage between the University of Aberdeen and University of Hong Kong – a bondage, that started in the late 19 hundreds when Sir Patrick Manson, an Aberdeen graduate, helped to establish the Medical School in Hong Kong which later became the HKU, and more recently you, yourself, Sir, establish the HK Hospital Authority providing today all the unparallel public medical services and you Sir spearheaded the formation of HK Academy of Medicine, today a globally recognised statutory body for standard setting of post graduate medicine. Mr. Chancellor, the passion for learning, for teaching, for research for educating ourselves and the next generation must be the hub of all university dictum, the results of which would be more enhanced and glorified if university education is done with international collaboration – after all learning knows no barriers. The efforts and activities of the University of Aberdeen in HK today, I hope signifies therefore not the end but the beginning of collaboration not just with the Faculty of Medicine but with the other faculties and disciplines of the HK University and the other 7 tertiary institutions and universities of HK.

          Finally, I have the pleasure of graduating from the University that Patrick Manson helped to establish; the challenge of taking the helm of both the Hospital Authority and the Academy of Medicine, and today the honour of being admitted as a honourary graduand of the University of Aberdeen. I only hope I can contribute to the future cooperation and collaboration of the University of Aberdeen and Hong Kong to realize the dream of internationalization of university education.