Hong Kong must not be allowed to plunge into chaos

My father joined the Hong Kong police force before World War II and worked as a police officer for more than 30 years before retirement. I lived in police married quarters for 20 years and attended a police children's primary school for six years. All my neighbours and my schoolmates' parents were in the Police. I deeply understand the difficult job of police officers.

I took the Secondary School Entrance Examination in 1966. As my examination results were quite good, I was awarded a full scholarship for five years by the welfare section of the police force, thus saving my parents a total of $2,000 in school fees over the following five years. To do my bit in nurturing the next generation of police children, I made a cheque to the Police Children's Education Trust a few years ago for $2,000 plus inflation over the previous 40 years.

Our society is very different today compared with how it was decades ago. So too is the work of the Police. Nonetheless, the difficulty remains the same.

Hong Kong has excellent law and order. There are of course many contributing factors, but no one can deny the Police their credit. Those people in Hong Kong who travel a lot know that the services provided by our Police are among the best in the world.

Recently, some people have been flagrantly violating the law and even ignoring court orders in the name of civil disobedience. This has created tremendous work pressure on the Police. I am aware that many members of the public have shown their support for the Police in various ways. On behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, I sincerely thank all people who stand by our Police.

Hong Kong must not be allowed to plunge into chaos. When it comes to safeguarding Hong Kong's social order and stability, the Police are our last line of defence.

November 5, 2014