In the photograph accompanying his message as Law Dean on the
Hong Kong University (HKU) website, Professor Michael Hor looks a
veritable Hong Konger with his stylish rimmed glasses, bright blue
shirt and deep-red bow tie.
In person, the 53-year-old remains as "Singaporean" as ever in a
safari-style shortsleeved shirt and matching khaki
pants.
It has been a month since he took up his new post here. How has he
been settling in?
"Oh, quite well," he says cheerily. "The faculty is supportive. The
job is quite different from what I was doing in Singapore, where I
was just a rank-and-file academic."
Not quite. The Ipoh-born Singapore permanent resident served in
Singapore's legal service in the 1980s before spending 25 years at
the National University of Singapore (NUS). There, besides focusing
on criminal law, he was also known for his outspokenness on
controversial topics, from the need to reform the Penal Code to
criminal detention without trial.
In 2009, he was one of two candidates shortlisted to succeed then
law dean Tan Cheng Han. The top job eventually went to Australian
Simon Chesterman in 2011.
So when Prof Hor's appointment to HKU was announced last year, it
naturally invited questions. After all, HKU's law faculty is top in
Asia, two spots ahead of NUS' in the QS World University Rankings.
Why was Prof Hor deemed not good enough for Singapore?
His answer is a diplomatic "I don't know."
But he notes there is "certainly a
perception that after a certain level, only people with the right
kind of politics will make it."
Such a perception, whether right or wrong, is widespread and needs
to be corrected, he says.
On the flip side, Prof Hor himself faces some scepticism from the
wider Hong Kong society. Some wonder if the academic from
politically more conservative Singapore will speak out for the
cause of constitutional reform as his predecessor Johannes Chan
did.
The city is undergoing its biggest political turmoil since 1997 and
is deeply split on the issue. One of Prof Hors colleagues,
Associate Professor Benny Tai, is spearheading a controversial
civil disobedience campaign to lobby for "genuine"
democracy.
Prof Hor is clear that he will not be as much of an activist as
Prof Chan but does not rule out the possibility that he may take
part in the movement if it does materialise. History, he muses, has
vindicated the breach of law in "exceptional circumstances" such as
in apartheid South Africa and colonial India.
"So the question now is whether the circumstances in Hong Kong
justify such actions. Some people think so... and I can see where
they are coming from," he says.
Prof Hor's vision for HKU's law faculty includes deepening
relations with China's law schools while also establishing ties
with those in countries such as India and Indonesia.
Noting that "NUS will never be as strong in North-east Asia, and
the same for HKU in South-east Asia," he says the rivals should
look at collaborating instead.
On whether he has discussed such plans with his former colleagues,
he says with a laugh: "No, but it'd be easy. I know them so
well!"
The above article appeared in "Law dean on his move to Hong
Kong " by Li Xueying, The Sunday Times, 3 August 2014, page
11